Azerbaijan and Pakistan could acquire official partner status in CSTO

The Parliamentary Assembly of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO PA) plans to establish an institute for partner states, which will have the right to an advisory voice, stated Vyacheslav Volodin, Speaker of the State Duma of Russia, on July 1, as reported by ria.ru.

“It is proposed to discuss the establishment of a new partnership institute for the CSTO Parliamentary Assembly. Partners will receive the right to an advisory voice, as well as the right to participate in the preparation of documents and the drafting of collective decisions,” he said at a meeting of the organization's council.

According to him, the emergence of the new status is of great significance for increasing the efficiency of the PA’s work. “Moreover, a number of states are expressing interest in cooperation within the framework of the CSTO PA. In this regard, granting observer and partner statuses in the CSTO provides additional opportunities to activate inter-parliamentary cooperation with countries and international organizations that share our principles in work,” the politician noted.

Currently, in addition to its members, the CSTO PA only has observer countries—Afghanistan and Serbia.

After the meeting, Leonid Kalashnikov, head of the State Duma’s CIS Affairs Committee, mentioned that many countries are expressing interest in the new format, specifically naming Azerbaijan and Pakistan. “As a rule, it is not customary to speak about this. For instance, Pakistan has long wanted to be both an observer and perhaps now, as a partner,” he stated.