Belarus will take over the chair of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) in December, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said on Friday.
"We have agreed that Belarus will take over the chair of the CSTO in December. The president of Belarus has expressed his readiness to take it on," Medvedev said at an informal CSTO summit in the Armenian capital of Yerevan.
"This makes us very happy," he added.
Russia's ties with Belarus have been strained lately over a host of issues, most recently when Medvedev accused President Alexander Lukashenko of failing to honor a promise to follow Russia's lead in recognizing the former Georgian republics of Abkhazia and South Ossetia.
MOSCOW, August 20 (RIA Novosti)
