Central Asian Nuclear-Weapon-Free-Zone and the Collective Security Treaty

In February 1997 Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan decided to establish Central Asian Nuclear-Weapon-Free-Zone (CANWFZ). As a matter of fact, negotiations on establishing that zone started in 1998 when Kyrgyzstan proposed draft basic element of a treaty on CANWFZ. After almost two years rather successful work on drafting the treaty, since April 2000 no meetings take place between diplomats of the five Central Asian states. It is recognized by many experts that it is the Tashkent 1992 Collective Security Treaty (CST) which caused a deadlock. Usually CST is interpreted as allowing the deployment of Russian nuclear weapons on the territory of the CST member states, for example, of Kazakhstan. However, more detailed analysis shows, that CST cannot a serious obstacle for creating CANWFZ