Vladimir Putin Announces Russia-led Central Asian Military Force
ladimir Putin announces Russia-led Central Asian military force
Russia may spearhead a joint task-force of post-Soviet states to secure the borders in Central Asia amid fears of Taliban “spillover” from Afghanistan
By Roland Oliphant, Moscow
9:42PM BST 16 Oct 2015
Vladimir Putin has proposed setting up a Nato-style joint task force of post-Soviet states to secure the borders of Central Asia amid fears of Taliban “spillover” from Afghanistan.
A fresh sign of the Russian president’s new military assertiveness, the deployment raises the possibility of Russian and allied troops being deployed along Tajikistan’s 800-mile border with Afghanistan, and Moscow tightening its influence of governments in Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan.
It comes a day after Barack Obama said American troops would stay in Afghanistan for at least two more years – itself a tacit admission that the Afghan government is unable to tackle the threat of a resurgent Taliban alone.
"The situation there [in Afghanistan] is genuinely close to critical," Mr Putin told a summit of former Soviet states in Burabay, Kazakhstan. “Terrorists of different stripes are gaining more influence and do not hide their plans for further expansion. One of their aims is the break into the Central Asian region.”
President Serge Sarkisian, Belarus' President Alexander Lukashenko, Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev, Russian President Vladimir Putin, Kyrgyz President Almazbek Atambayev, pose for a photo during a Commonwealth of Independent States, former Soviet republics, summit in Astana, Kazakhstan Photo: AP
While details of the joint task force have not been released, Russia’s relatively modern and powerful military necessarily form the core of any force put together.
Russian troops were responsible for guarding Tajikistan’s border with Afghanistan until 2005, when they pulled out following the expiry of the treaty that had kept them there.
Mr Putin’s comments follower earlier announcements that Russia would beef up its military presence in Tajikistan, an impoverished former Soviet state that borders Afghanistan.
The Kremlin is said to have become particularly concerned after the Taliban assault on the city of Kunduz, not far from the border with Uzbekistan in northern Afghanistan, last month.
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http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/russia/11937195/Vladimir-Putin-announces-Russia-led-Central-Asian-military-force.html