Visitors walk past Russian tanks and military
vehicles during the “Army-2015” international military forum in Kubinka,
outside Moscow, June 17, 2015. (Photo by AFP)
Russia
and a number of ex-Soviet countries in Central Asia agree to form a
joint task force to defend their borders at the times of crisis.
The
decision was made at a meeting of the Commonwealth of Independent
States (CIS) regional organization, which groups former Soviet
republics, in Kazakhstan on Friday.
The countries include Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Moldova, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan.
Addressing
the event, Russian President Vladimir Putin warned of a possible
militant incursion from Afghanistan, calling on the CIS to be prepared
to act together to repel such attacks.
“Indeed, the
situation [in Afghanistan] is close to becoming critical. The terrorists
of all sorts are gaining an ever-growing influence and are not hiding
their plans of further expansion,” he said. “One of their goals is to
penetrate the Central Asian region. It is important for us to be ready
to give a coordinated response to such a scenario.”
The
United States and its allies invaded Afghanistan in October 2001 as
part of Washington’s so-called war on terror. Violence, however,
continues to plague the country despite the current presence there of
thousands of foreign forces.
Putin’s remarks came a day after US
President Barack Obama announced plans to keep about 9,800 American
troops in Afghanistan through most of the next year. Binary oppositions
The
Russian head of state also expressed satisfaction with the results of
the Russian airstrikes against targets belonging to the Takfiri Daesh
terror group in Syria.
Syria has been grappling with a deadly
crisis since 2011, which has claimed the lives of more than 250,000
people so far. The Syrian army’s fight against terrorists took a new
turn after Russia started launching airstrikes against Takfiri
terrorists in the violence-scarred country upon a request by Damascus on
September 30.
Just as the formation of the task force by Russia
and its allies is almost certain to be interpreted as a counterbalance
to the Western military alliance of NATO, the Russian airstrikes in
Syria are also being conducted in parallel to a US-led military campaign
in the Arab country.
The US-led coalition has been pounding
purported Daesh positions inside Syria without any authorization from
Damascus or a United Nations mandate since last September. The mission
has fallen severely short of dislodging the terrorists, who have seized
about a third of the violence-scarred country.
In his Friday
remarks, Putin also called on the countries interested in securing a
solution to the Syrian crisis to cooperate with the Baghdad information
center, which the country established together with Iran, Iraq, and
Syria in late September as part of their efforts to fight terrorist
groups operating in the Middle East, particularly Daesh. In
this photograph, taken on February 24, 2010, a US army soldier takes
cover as a Blackhawk helicopter transporting NATO officers lands in the
Balakino Bazar neighborhood of the town of Marjah in southern
Afghanistan. (Photo by AFP) A Western alliance for no reason
NATO
came about in 1949 following World War II and during the Cold War under
the pretext of protecting its member states against an alleged threat
posed by the former Soviet Union. It has, however, continued to exist
despite the collapse of the Union in December 1991, which effectively
robbed the alliance of its raison d’etre.
NATO has continued to expand and militarize many parts of the world since then. ‘Intelligent Russia’
Speaking
to Press TV from Kentucky, political commentator John Miranda shared
his views on the rationale behind the potential formation of such a task
force.
“I think the purpose of this is that Putin is showing that
how intelligent he is. He is obviously aware that there can be
repercussions to the Russian involvement in Syria. And the terrorist
groups, who have been funded by the West in Syria… Obviously, there
could be a push to put some of these groups into neighboring…
countries,” he said.
“Without pointing the finger at the West, he
is telling everybody to be prepared…[and that] ‘The same type of
infiltration that has happened in Syria can happen in your countries, so
we need to make sure that the borders are secure, that these
infiltrators are not getting into your countries.’”
“As big as the
Russian military is, it is not big enough to be handling a crisis
similar to [the one] in Syria in half a dozen countries,” Miranda said,
hence the joint task force.
0 comments:
Post a Comment