President of Uzbekistan complains Eurasian organizations are too similar, says they should be merged
President of Uzbekistan Islam Karimov advocates the merger of the CSTO and the EurAsEC. The tendency to convergence of post-Soviet states is growing, which is always supported by the CPRF
President of Uzbekistan Islam Karimov advocates the merger of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) and the Eurasian Economic Community (EurAsEC), according to the website arms-expo.ru. "The EurAsEC and the CSTO have similar agendas and often duplicate each other. We in Uzbekistan are discussing the issue of creating an organization on the basis of the CSTO and EurAsEC association," RIA Novosti quotes Karimov's statement at a meeting with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev. Karimov noted that if a joint organization was created, it could work more efficiently.
In turn, the President of Russia said that the issue of the merger of the CSTO and the EurAsEC should be discussed. "That's absolutely right. But as for the forms of integration, we will, of course, discuss them," Medvedev said.
The CSTO includes Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, the EurAsEC includes Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.