Nikolai Bordyuzha, the secretary general of the CSTO (which includes Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, and Tajikistan), said the document clearly described the situations when the protocol is to be applied. These situations include preparations for aggression and actual aggression as such, the plotting and carrying out of international terrorist attacks, and external threats to the security, sovereignty, or territorial integrity of one or more CSTO members. The document also sets guidelines for the interaction between state and interstate CSTO bodies in such situations.
The aid includes military equipment provision free of charge or on privileged terms to maintain and restore the combat efficiency of armies of CSTO nations.
Bordyuzha said aid would be provided at the request of one or more parties. Requests for aid are to be sent to the chairman of the Collective Security Council, the supreme CSTO body consisting of heads of state. Requests should include a list of required military equipment, in addition to the amount of equipment and the terms of the requested aid.
CSTO countries will now have to coordinate the approval of the draft protocol with their own governments.
