CSTO Secretary General on Freezing Armenia's Participation in the Organization

The Secretary General of the CSTO, Imangali Tasmagambetov, has stated that Armenia has not been participating in the organization's secretariat activities recently; however, it has not submitted any notifications regarding its withdrawal from the organization. Meanwhile, the CSTO Secretary General has not ruled out the possibility of new countries joining the organization. This information is reported by kommersant.ru.

"Yerevan has indeed not participated in the activities of the CSTO secretariat recently... Regarding the statements by officials of the Republic of Armenia, I would like to note that no official application has been received from Yerevan regarding the suspension of CSTO membership," the Secretary General announced in an interview with Igor Korotchenko, the editor-in-chief of the 'National Defense' magazine.

He also informed that the secretariat regularly updates relevant structures operating in Yerevan about the decisions being made and accepted. "Of course, such a possibility is fundamentally not excluded... It is possible that our peacekeeping activities can uniquely become a driver for the expansion of the organization or for the emergence of new formats of cooperation based on the CSTO, whose necessity, unfortunately, will only increase in the visible future," the Secretary General responded to questions about the possible expansion of the CSTO.

According to Tasmagambetov, the CSTO offers very favorable conditions for participation, including the priority of political-diplomatic methods for crisis management. Currently, the CSTO includes Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, and Tajikistan.

In February, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan announced the freezing of Armenia's participation in the CSTO. On March 12, Nikol Pashinyan did not rule out Armenia's exit from the CSTO if Yerevan was not satisfied with the vision of the organization's partners regarding where Armenia's sovereign territory lies and where the CSTO's area of responsibility is. Russia's Foreign Ministry described such rhetoric as "offensive."