Armenia's withdrawal from CSTO not off the table, says Pashinyan

PanARMENIAN.Net - Armenia's withdrawal from the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) is not off the table, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan told a press conference on Monday, May 22.

Pashinyan noted that Armenia will de jure leave the CSTO if it turns out that “the Organization has left the country in terms of fulfilling its obligations.”

Such a decision can also be made if the status of a CSTO member interferes with discussions of security issues with other countries.

According to him, it was precisely the membership in the CSTO that prevented Yerevan from discussing the acquisition of weapons from third countries.

"We were told: you are a member of the CSTO, what should we discuss with you?" Pashinyan said.

Asked whether the decision to withdraw from the CSTO would harm the Armenian-Russian relations, the prime minister said that recent opinion polls in the republic showed that the level of trust in the Russian Federation had decreased in the country.

Pashinyan said earlier that the issue of Armenia's participation in the CSTO military exercises in Kyrgyzstan is under discussion.

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