CSTO Working Group on Military Training and Scientific Cooperation Opens in Bishkek

A working group meeting on military training and scientific cooperation under the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) opened in Bishkek today, bringing together delegations from Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, and Tajikistan to coordinate officer education, joint curricula, and research collaboration across the bloc. The two-day session runs August 21–22 under Kyrgyzstan’s 2025 chairmanship. AKIpress reported the start of proceedings and its focus on aligning training and scientific work across member states. Officials have said the agenda will center on harmonizing military-education standards, expanding joint training for specialized branches, and mapping priority research areas that can be shared among defense academies and laboratories across the alliance. Outcomes from the Bishkek meeting are expected to inform the CSTO’s rolling program of joint trainings and institutional cooperation in 2026 and beyond. Recent Track Record in Central Asia Today’s meeting builds on a stepped-up schedule of CSTO drills and staff talks in Central Asia. In September 2024, Kyrgyzstan hosted the active phase of “Interaction-2024,” “Search-2024,” and “Echelon-2024” exercises designed to synchronize command-and-control, reconnaissance, logistics, and support elements of the alliance’s collective forces. The Kyrgyz leg concluded with combined operations demonstrations and evaluation of interoperability gains. In October 2024, Tajikistan hosted “Rubezh-2024,” focused on Central Asia’s rapid-deployment forces and scenarios involving incursions by illegal armed groups, hostage rescue, and air-defense coordination. The CSTO reported that the exercise’s operational objectives were achieved and that joint tactics were refined during the active phase at the Harbmaidon range. This year, the organization also ran a strategic command-staff training for its Joint Staff and national ministries on March 17–20, 2025, rehearsing planning and coordination procedures for regional contingencies - part of the bloc’s annual joint-training cycle. Policy framework and next steps The Bishkek working group is meeting against the backdrop of decisions taken by defense ministers in Bishkek on May 28, 2025, when CSTO members approved the Plan of Military Cooperation for 2026–2030 and the Plan of joint training for 2026 - documents that set training priorities, exercise calendars, and institutional cooperation goals across the alliance. By aligning academy programs and research agendas, and pairing them with the long-term exercise plan, the CSTO is aiming to standardize specialist training (from signals and EW to logistics and UAV operations), expand exchanges among defense universities, and convert lessons from recent drills into updated curricula. As chair, Kyrgyzstan is expected to circulate agreed proposals from this week’s sessions to the Council of Defense Ministers for inclusion in the 2026 training calendar and for incorporation into the 2026–2030 cooperation framework.