Armenia's withdrawal from CSTO remains on agenda - Prime Minister
YEREVAN, May 22. /ARKA/. Armenia's possible withdrawal from the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) is still on our agenda, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said at a news conference today.
"If Armenia decides de jure to withdraw from the CSTO, it will happen when Armenia records that the CSTO has withdrawn from Armenia,’ Pashinyan said.
He added,’ Speaking about the CSTO withdrawal, I first of all mean its obligations towards Armenia. I wouldn't say that the issue is out of the agenda because there are still issues to discuss, » Pashinyan said.
"I do not exclude that Armenia may decide to de jure terminate or freeze its membership in the CSTO. But that will happen only if we record that the CSTO has withdrawn from Armenia," he reiterated.
Pashinyan said that the official Yerevan has received offers to acquire arms and military equipment from other countries, but these opportunities have been closed because of Armenia's membership in CSTO.
Sargis Khandanyan, the chairman of the Armenian parliamentary standing committee on foreign relations from the ruling Civil Contract party said earlier that Armenia had never objected to deployment of a Collective Security Treaty Organization's (CSTO) mission to its border with Azerbaijan. But according to him, it is important that the CSTO fix the objective reality existing today, specifically, what exactly is happening in the sovereign territory of the Republic of Armenia (the invasion of Azerbaijani troops of Armenia’s territory).
According to Khandanyan, without a detailed assessment of the current situation, it will be difficult to imagine the fundamental nature of a CSTO mission.
Earlier, Armenian cancelled a CSTO military exercise it was to host this year and refused also to appoint a deputy secretary-general of the CSTO citing a lack of CSTO support in its conflict with Azerbaijan, which has seized parts of Armenia's sovereign territory.
Citing the same reason, it also rejected CSTO's offer to deploy a monitoring mission to the Armenian-Azerbaijani border.
In a recent interview with Russian RTVI Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Galuzin said Moscow expected the 'harmful discussions on whether CSTO was leaving Armenia or not to end and that all issues of interaction with Yerevan within the CSTO framework, including the deployment of the organization’s monitoring mission in Armenia, would be solved in a constructive and mutually beneficial manner.”
Galuzin's comments came in retaliation to Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan's claim that it was the CSTO that could leave Armenia. -0-
