Relations with the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) are currently frozen, said Andranik Kocharyan, head of the National Assembly’s Standing Committee on Defense and Security, responding to whether Armenia might eventually decide to leave the bloc.

“Never say never. I don’t know. The world is very unstable. This is not about the CSTO itself. Our country’s security and national interest must dictate the sequence of our steps… When the CSTO was supposed to act as a collective body, was it actually there?” he said, according to 1lurer.am.

Kocharyan noted that during discussions in Moscow, attempts were made to link CSTO actions to the situation in Nagorno-Karabakh, but stressed that the organization had responsibilities regarding Armenia’s own borders.

“Our problem arose from the situation at Armenia’s borders. We appealed to the CSTO for support two or three times. That support, beyond verbal statements, had no real prospects,” he stated.

Earlier, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said it is unrealistic to expect changes regarding Armenia’s return to active participation in the CSTO.

During an April 1 meeting in Moscow with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Pashinyan said:

“We have never hidden our position regarding the CSTO, because in 2022 we had a specific situation. In my opinion, CSTO mechanisms should have been activated, but they were not, and this led to the current state of our relations. We are not participating in CSTO activities because we still cannot explain to our people why the CSTO failed to respond, despite its obligations under the Collective Security Treaty.”