Azerbaijani Armed Forces Infiltrated Our Territory, and We Applied to the CSTO - Pashinyan to CSTO Security Council Secretaries

Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan received the participants of the meeting of the Committee of Security Council Secretaries of the member countries of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), including the Secretary of the Armenian Security Council Armen Grigoryan, the Secretary of the Russian Security Council Nikolai Patrushev, the Secretary of the Belarusian Security Council Alexander Wolfovich, the Secretary of the Kazakh Security Council Gizat Nurdauletov, the Secretary of the Kyrgyz Security Council Marat Imankulov, the Secretary of the Tajik Security Council Nasrullo Mahmudzod, and the CSTO Secretary General Stanislav Zas.

In his opening remarks, Prime Minister Pashinyan stated: "Dear friends, I welcome you to the Republic of Armenia on the occasion of the regular meeting of the Committee of Security Council Secretaries of the member countries of the CSTO, which is being held in our country as part of Armenia's presidency in the CSTO. Indeed, this is a double anniversary year for our organization. We are celebrating the 30th anniversary of the signing of the Collective Security Treaty and the 20th anniversary of the establishment of the Collective Security Treaty Organization, and it is a great honor for us to preside over our organization in this anniversary year. You know, and we have discussed it many times, that increasing the effectiveness of the CSTO is one of the top priorities of our presidency, and we believe that we need to refine the mechanisms for rapid and crisis response to specific situations.

I would like to point out that we also have a legal framework in this regard. On December 10, 2010, the Collective Security Council of the Collective Security Treaty Organization adopted a provision on the order of response to crisis situations, and I believe that this document clearly outlines the mechanisms that exist within our organization. In particular, it stipulates what we should consider a crisis situation and how we should respond to it.

Moreover, I want to draw your attention to the fact that this provision also includes a concept called 'mission,' which is formulated as follows: a group of specialists from member states composed of representatives appointed by the CSTO member states in accordance with this provision and sent to the crisis area to carry out permanent monitoring of the situation, determine the circumstances on the ground, develop recommendations regarding further measures of the organization for the prevention and resolution of the crisis situation, as well as perform other functions set by the CSTO Collective Security Council.

I also want to point out that in the second chapter of this document, there is a chapter called 'Monitoring,' and the CSTO Secretariat continuously collects and analyzes information on the situation and development trends in the area of responsibility of the organization to identify the preconditions for crisis situations.

Why am I talking about this? You know that last year in May, the Azerbaijani armed forces infiltrated our territory, and in this regard, we applied to the CSTO. I have spoken about this many times, and as the presiding chair, I want to emphasize that this issue should be discussed thoroughly. Why? Because we see that aggressive statements from Azerbaijan continue, and we need to discuss this matter, especially considering that Armenia has applied to the CSTO, as it is a fundamentally important issue for both us and the organization.

I also want to mention the following: after the infiltration of Azerbaijani troops into our territory, there were some comments stating that there is no delineated and demarcated border between Armenia and Azerbaijan. Frankly, this is quite a dangerous formulation since we are saying that it is the responsibility zone of the Collective Security Treaty Organization. If we say that the boundaries established during the demarcation and delimitation processes should be taken into account, this could blur the concept of the CSTO's responsibility zone, as the question arises: where does the CSTO's responsibility zone begin and where does it end?

Our position is that there is a specific border between Armenia and Azerbaijan since in 1991, when the Commonwealth of Independent States was established, an intergovernmental agreement was signed, which clearly states that the countries mutually recognize the boundaries that exist between them. This refers to the administrative boundaries of the Soviet era, and I believe we need to have this starting point. I think that the opposite interpretation of this situation could diminish the effectiveness of the CSTO.

I hope that the nuances mentioned during this meeting and your session will also be discussed. Recently in Moscow, during the informal summit of the CSTO, I raised this issue. We have begun to discuss and I want to once again instruct the CSTO Secretary General to organize this matter in accordance with our statutory documents since the current situation in our region, one might say, is stably tense. But the statements being made by officials from Azerbaijan should be warning, and I think we need to discuss this issue within the CSTO format.

Please allow me to welcome you once again, I am very pleased to see you. And I am very happy with the dynamic that has developed in the CSTO during the post-COVID period because in the past two years we have had very few interactions in existing formats. Of course, we continued to work in online mode, but I think we all agree that such meetings and interactions are crucial for our work. I am glad that we have returned to this regime, and this took place during our presidency year, this important anniversary year. Thank you!"

The Prime Minister discussed issues related to the agenda and activities of the CSTO with the Security Council Secretaries of the member states. Opinions were exchanged on regional and international security challenges.