MOSCOW, FEBRUARY 6, NOYAN TAPAN. Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) Collective Security Council special sitting took place on February 4 in Moscow and was conducted by the President of Armenia presiding over at CSTO, Serzh Sargsyan. Heads of CSTO states discussed and signed a decision to establish CSTO Collective Rapid Reaction Force. Presenting the decision S. Sargsyan classed it as an important step aimed at "strengthening organization's military component." The decision was made due to the necessity to strengthen member countries' collective security and to further raise its potential, as well as to repulse with joint participation in case of a military aggression and to resist other challenges. The CSTO Secretary General and Organization's united headquarters were instructed in three months to work out and present to the regulations bodies a package of normative legal acts proceeding from the decision of establishment of Collective Rapid Reaction Force. According to the signed decision, a decision on using CSTO Collective Rapid Reaction Force is made by Organization's Collective Security Council by the principle of consensus. Another point stipulates that the armed forces acting as part of CSTO Collective Rapid Reaction Force provided by the member countries before getting down to the mission reserved for them are in the exclusive competence of the given countries, in the places of their permanent dislocation. A decision on the place and time of holding Organization's next sitting was made at the special sitting: it will take place in 2009 June in Moscow. Organization's 2009 budget was also established at the sitting. At the Collective Security Council special sitting Nikolay Bordyuzha was reaffirmed on CSTO Secretary General's post. According to the report of the RA President's Press Office, the same day CSTO countries' heads took part in the Eurasian Economic Community Interstate Council's special sitting, where issues of establishing a joint Anti-crisis Fund and High Technologies Center were discussed.

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