Foreign ministers from the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) countries are to address peacekeeping activities on 4 October in Dushanbe, a Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman said Monday, RIA Novosti reported.

Mikhail Kamynin said the meeting in the capital of Tajikistan will review a number of draft documents on collective peacekeeping mechanisms, joint efforts in the fight against terrorism, drug-trafficking and illegal migration.

CSTO members also use the organization as a platform to fight terrorism and organized crime, and have pledged to provide immediate military assistance to one another in the event of an attack.

The bloc has a Collective Rapid Reaction Force deployed in Central Asia, and is continuing to build up its military forces, which some experts view as a step to counter-balance NATO’s further eastward expansion and to keep the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) countries under Russia’s military protection.

The CSTO comprises Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.