The rapidly deteriorating situation in Afghanistan creates security risks for bordering Central Asian states, the head of the Russian-led Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) said on Thursday.
"We don't predict any military conflict in CSTO member-states any time soon," Nikolai Bordyuzha said in an interview with a Tajik newspaper.
"However, the situation in Afghanistan, which borders on CSTO members Tajikistan and Uzbekistan is, I repeat, very strained and dangerous," he said.
The CSTO also includes Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. Russia's security strategy until 2020 envisions the CSTO as "a key mechanism to counter regional military challenges and threats."
Russia backed the 2001 U.S.-led military operation in Afghanistan to topple the radical Islamic Taliban. But in the past few years, Russia has grown increasingly alarmed about political instability in Afghanistan, where the Taliban has regained influence, defying in the process the Western-backed government and the presence of a powerful international force.
The Kremlin says that apart from the renewed threat from radical Islam, instability in Afghanistan has led to the sharp growth of heroin production in the country, trafficked to the West through the ex-Soviet Central Asian states and Russia. The Kremlin has described the growth of heroin use in Russia as a national security threat.
Russia has vowed to assist U.S. President Barack Obama in tackling the Afghanistan problem and has allowed the transit of NATO military goods through its territory. But Moscow insists that military efforts cannot stabilize Afghanistan.
"Only political measures can solve conflicts," Bordyuzha said.
Bordyuzha said the lack of cooperation between the CSTO and NATO has hampered efforts to reduce regional threats arising from Afghanistan's instability.
"We have repeatedly offered to set up cooperation on drug trafficking and anti-terrorism issues in Afghanistan," Bordyuzha said. "We hope that after the recent change of leadership in the alliance, Brussels will take a fresh look at CSTO-NATO relations."
DUSHANBE, February 4 (RIA Novosti)
