Armenia not striving to join NATO, Pashinyan says

PanARMENIAN.Net - Armenia is a member of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) and does not seek to join NATO, but will maintain relations with the alliance, acting Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said Monday, December 10.

“We have relations with NATO given the peacekeeping missions in Kosovo, Afghanistan, and we will continue this cooperation. But we are not striving [to join] NATO,” he said.

“We are a member of the CSTO.”

Armenia maintains partnerships with both Russia and the European Union, but will not be "under anyone's the influence", Pashinyan said in response to a question about the country's foreign policy priorities after the elections to the National Assembly.

On December 9, Armenia held early elections to the National Assembly, which were the first national elections after the political transition of April-May 2018.

My Step alliance led by Armenia's acting Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has secured a convincing victory in Sunday's snap parliamentary election, with 70.43% of all the ballots cast in their favor.

Two more parties - Prosperous Armenia and Bright Armenia - have also collected enough votes to have seats in the National Assembly. They have won 8.27% and 6.37% of the vote, respectively.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, the European Union and others have congratulated the country on elections.