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.
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.
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]
The CSTO Secretariat includes the following main structural units:
The following have served as heads of the CSTO:[2]