Kazakh Foreign Minister Murat Nurtleu said that there was a 'common interest in halting urgent challenges and threats', during the meeting of the Council of Foreign Ministers of the Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO) in Almaty on Friday.

"The exchange of views revealed a common interest in halting urgent challenges and threats to our common prosperity and stability', said Nurtleu, whose country holds the rotating presidency of the organisation, adding that the members had "reviewed the current situation and prospects in Afghanistan and the Middle East".

Footage also shows the foreign ministers of Russia, Kazakhstan, Belarus, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan and the organisation's secretary general posing for photographs before signing the final documents.

The CSTO Foreign Ministers also adopted statements on the peaceful use of outer space, the expansion of co-operation in the field of international information security and other topical issues on the international agenda.

Earlier this month, Armenian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Ani Badalyan reported that Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan would not attend the meeting.

Previously, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan claimed the "Collective Security Treaty has not fulfilled its objectives", following Azerbaijan's takeover of Nagorno Karabakh, inhabited mostly by ethnic Armenians.

Pashinyan also was not present at the CSTO summit in Minsk in November, which Moscow described as 'regrettable'.

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