CSTO focused on developing “allied relations” with Armenia

PanARMENIAN.Net - Member countries of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) remain focused on developing allied relations with Armenia, according to an article by CSTO Secretary General Imangali Tasmagambetov in the magazine Mezhdunarodnaya Zhizn', (via TASS).

Tasmagambetov said Yerevan remains an ally and continues to work in the organization.

“The organization was ready to send a peacekeeping mission to monitor the situation on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border, however, in the final part of this work, Yerevan asked to remove the corresponding document from the agenda in connection with the upcoming conclusion of a peace treaty with Baku,” Tasmagambetov said.

“At the same time, Armenia’s work in the organization continues, multilateral contacts Yerevan within the CSTO are being carried out. Armenia has been and remains an ally. The CSTO states, in turn, remain focused on developing allied relations with the Republic of Armenia.”

He emphasized that the current international situation determines the need to further improve the legal framework regulating the areas of activity of the CSTO, work to clarify the fundamental documents and bring them into line with new conditions, greater detail of mechanisms and tools, and algorithms for making management decisions in the organization.

In January 2023, Armenia refused to host the exercises of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) on its territory in 2023. Possible CSTO exercises in Armenia could create a threat in the region, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said back then. “We considered holding the exercises inappropriate, since they would create a threat to the Turkish-Azerbaijani tandem. They will come, conduct exercises, and then we will be left alone with this threat,” Pashinyan said, emphasizing that this is why Armenia demands that the CSTO clarify its zone of responsibility in the region.