CIS COLLECTIVE SECURITY COUNCIL CONVENES OVER AFGHANISTAN.

Representatives of some of the nine countries, signatories to the CIS collective security treaty, convened in Moscow today following the Taliban’s latest victories in northern Afghanistan over forces supported by Russia and Iran. Moscow seeks to draw the Central Asian countries into some joint defensive action that would at least symbolically substantiate the otherwise dormant CIS collective security treaty. Most of the five Central Asian countries are reacting with restraint, however. (Itar-Tass, May 27)

Yeltsin Signs NATO-Russia Agreement.