Mutual Security Pact Signed by 6 Ex-Soviet States

The majority of the members of the Commonwealth of Independent States signed a collective security treaty Friday, committing themselves to come to each other’s aid in case of attack and assuring Russia a controlling military role in most of the old Soviet Union.

“Now that most of the states within the Commonwealth have opted for their own armed forces, we are shifting toward a defensive alliance,” Kazakhstan’s president, Nursultan Nazarbayev, told a news conference. “The underlying doctrine will be that aggression against any member of the Commonwealth will mean aggression against the entire Commonwealth.”

Russia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan and Armenia--six of the 11 members of the Commonwealth--signed the security agreement during a summit of the heads of state of the Commonwealth in Tashkent, the capital of the Central Asian republic of Uzbekistan.

“It will not be like NATO, because the participants are not on equal footing,” said Igor Malashenko, a prominent political commentator for Commonwealth-wide television. “Russia will play the dominant role.”

Russian President Boris N. Yeltsin told reporters after four hours of meetings that he expected most of the holdouts to initial the treaty soon, and he attributed the less-than-unanimous support to bad attendance at the summit. Five of the leaders of Commonwealth states were absent and sent their prime ministers.

“My opinion is that too many heads of state have been replaced with heads of government, and they did not have sufficient authority (to sign),” Yeltsin said. “I believe that upon their return to their states and upon proper consultations, the number of signatories will definitely grow.”

Those republics not signing the security agreement were Ukraine, Belarus, Azerbaijan, Moldova and Kyrgyzstan. And despite Yeltsin’s statement, it was clear that at least some of them--Ukraine in particular--opposed it.

Ukrainian Prime Minister Vitold Fokin, attending in place of President Leonid M. Kravchuk, said the agreement was superfluous: “Ukraine did not sign it because essentially this collective security document repeats provisions incorporated in previous treaties, documents and agreements.”

Malashenko, the political commentator, said Ukraine’s reason for opposing the treaty was part of the smaller Slavic state’s attempt to free itself from Russia’s sphere of influence.

“Ukraine understands that Russia will play a dominating role,” Malashenko said. “The politicians of Ukraine these days pretend that they are very afraid of Russia and thereby (try to) persuade the West to provide for Ukraine’s defense and give it economic support.”

“I don’t understand the objections against this treaty,” Yeltsin said, “because it talks about collective security, and the entire world is following this path.”

The Belarussian leader, Stanislav Shushkevich, told reporters he did not sign the agreement because some of its provisions contradicted his country’s legislation. But he called the treaty “worthy of respect” and said his country’s Parliament would discuss signing it.

The Commonwealth of Independent States was formed last year on the wreckage of the Soviet Union after Ukraine refused to sign on to then-Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev’s plan for a new union, which would have maintained a strong center.

Although Ukraine was largely responsible for the creation of the loosely knit Commonwealth, Kravchuk has frequently showed his lack of enthusiasm for the organization and has called it a “mechanism for divorce.”

Kravchuk’s decision not to attend Friday’s summit was seen as an obvious snub to Yeltsin and the other leaders. But Yeltsin, upon arrival in Tashkent for the summit, called Kravchuk’s absence “no tragedy.”

And Yeltsin made it clear that he considers the Commonwealth more than a passing fancy.

“We are sticking together,” he said. “We are trying to consolidate the Commonwealth and find common solutions--at least Russia wants it badly.”

The five absent heads of state had cited problems at home or other plans as their reason for non-attendance. Despite the shortage of top leaders, the six leaders who attended and the representatives of the others managed to sign several agreements in addition to the security treaty.

They agreed to adhere to the documents that the old Soviet Union signed on troop reductions in Europe, to coordinate the use of their airspace and to share the funding of the Baikonur and Plesetsk space centers.

The leaders also decided to create a group of peacekeeping troops--like those employed by the United Nations--which would be sent into tense areas to break up military conflicts but would be forbidden to fight on either side.

This decision was particularly timely, with near-civil war raging between Azerbaijan and Armenia, ethnic strife between Russians and Moldovans in the southern republic of Moldova, and opposition political groups using force to gain power in Tajikistan and Azerbaijan.

Times staff writer Shogren reported from Moscow, and Grebenshikov, a reporter in The Times’ Moscow bureau, from Tashkent.