Secretary General of the CSTO

The secretary general of CSTO is the chief civil servant of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), responsible for coordinating the workings of the alliance. The officeholder is one of the foremost political official in the organization. The current secretary general is former Kazakh Prime Minister Imangali Tasmagambetov, who took office on 1 January 2023.

Secretary General of the Collective Security Treaty Organization
Генеральный секретарь ОДКБ
Logo of the CSTO
Flag of the CSTO
Incumbent Imangali Tasmagambetov since 1 January 2023
CSTO
Member of	CSTO Collective Security Council
Seat	CSTO Secretariat, Moscow, Russia
Term length	Four years, renewable
Formation	October 1996; 28 years ago (1996-10)
First holder	Vladimir Zemsky

History

The CSTO countries selected the first secretary general in October 1996. Since that time, eight different military/security officials have served officially as secretary general. Four countries have been represented, with five secretaries general hailing from Russia, one from Armenia, one from Belarus and one from Kazakhstan. The position has also been occupied temporarily on two occasions by an acting secretary general between appointments.

Secretariat

The Secretariat has divisions in charge of legal, financial, economic and other issues. The number of quota posts in the Secretariat is assigned to the CSTO member states in proportion to their contributions to the budget. The appointment of officials to the quota positions of the Secretariat is carried out by the Secretary General on a rotational basis every three years on the proposal of the CSTO member states.^[1]

Leadership

• CSTO Secretary General: Imangali Tasmagambetov (Kazakhstan)
• Deputy Secretary General
  • Valery Semerikov (Russian Federation)
  • Samat Ordabaev (Kazakhstan)
  • Tokhir Khayrulloyev (Tajikistan)

Structure

The CSTO Secretariat includes the following main structural units:

• Department of Political Cooperation
• Department for the Management of Military Security Problems
• Department for Countering Challenges and Threats
• Case Management Department
• Organizational and Planning Department

List of secretaries-general

The following have served as heads of the CSTO:^[2]

Country		Name	Term start	Term end
Russia		Vladimir Zemsky[3]	October 1996	March 2000
Russia		Valeriy Nikolayenko[4]	May 2000	28 April 2003
Russia		Nikolay Bordyuzha	28 April 2003	31 December 2016
Russia		Valery Semerikov (Acting)	1 January 2017	2 May 2017
Armenia		Yuri Khatchaturov	2 May 2017	1 November 2018
Russia		Valery Semerikov (Acting)	1 November 2018	31 December 2019
Belarus		Stanislav Zas	1 January 2020	23 November 2022
Kazakhstan		Imangali Tasmagambetov	1 January 2023

See Also

• Secretary General of NATO – North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) equivalent