Pashinyan announced his readiness to deploy the CSTO mission in Armenia

Armenia is ready to deploy a mission of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) on the border with Azerbaijan, discussions on this issue are ongoing, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said.

“Not only Russia is ready, but also Armenia. We have identified the circle of our concern, or our desire. Our desire is to make the mission effective. This is important for Armenia, and for the CSTO, and for the region. We are continuing discussions in this direction.” leads his words to Sputnik Armenia.

Pashinyan also urged not to consider the missions of the CSTO and the European Union on the same plane.

“The CSTO has agreements to ensure the security of Armenia, Armenia has its own agreements,” he added.

On the readiness of the CSTO to send a mission to the border of Armenia and Azerbaijan to help Yerevan on March 31 declared Yury Shuvalov, representative of the secretariat of the organization, following an expanded meeting of the leadership at the CSTO headquarters. The organization is ready to provide other measures of assistance, he said then.

Prior to this, on March 14, Pashinyan said that Armenia was not going to leave the CSTO, but the organization itself, “wishing it or not, leaves Armenia.” He also said that the Armenian side is not going to appoint its representative as deputy chairman of the CSTO. Armenia “would gladly accept the post of CSTO deputy secretary general if it means that Armenia’s security is increased by another factor, otherwise we will send the wrong message to our people,” he said.

The complication of Armenia’s relations with the CSTO became known at the end of 2022. Then Pashinyan refused to sign the declaration of the CSTO Council and the draft on joint measures to provide assistance to Armenia. The prime minister explained his decision by the fact that the draft was incomplete and does not contain a political assessment of Azerbaijan’s aggressive actions in Nagorno-Karabakh. By this, Pashinyan understood the clashes on May 11 and November 14, 2021, as well as on September 13, 2022, during which Azerbaijan established control over territories with a total area of ​​140 square meters. km.

Later, on December 6, 2022, speaking at a meeting of the CSTO parliamentary assembly, the speaker of the Armenian parliament Alen Simonyan reproached the organization for a passive attitude towards the actions of Baku. How noted experts interviewed by Vedomosti, now Yerevan does not have a scenario for withdrawing from the CSTO.