Kremlin Comments on Pashinyan's Statements

The Russian Federation will continue to work with Armenia to clarify Yerevan's position regarding the CSTO and expects that relations between the countries will continue along the lines of partnership and alliance, said Russian President's press secretary Dmitry Peskov.

“As for Armenia, we will continue to work with our Armenian friends, we will clarify their position, and of course, we hope that in any case we will remain true to our partnership and allied relations,” Peskov said in response to Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan's statements regarding Armenia's potential exit from the CSTO.

“Each country decides its own priorities; our priorities are well understood, and we consistently advocate for them, and those priorities in the field of security, collective security are shared with the CSTO member countries,” the Russian president's press secretary noted.

The Kremlin representative mentioned that Armenia is probably also interested in this matter.

It should be noted that today Pashinyan stated in the National Assembly that the next logical step in relations with the CSTO would be to exit the organization.

“I want to remind you that in our government program we did not say that we will remain a member of the CSTO. We said we have questions for which we will seek answers. When this will happen, we will determine; it may be in a month, possibly a year, or three years,” Pashinyan said.

The Prime Minister accused the organization of inaction regarding Armenia's security issues. “We received assurances that Armenia's border is a red line for the organization and allies, but when the lack of proper response from the CSTO followed the invasion on May 12, 2021, in the government program, we delicately put the effectiveness of the CSTO into question,” he said.

According to the Prime Minister, after that, the government took very concrete action: negotiations, discussions, meetings, which led to the understanding that the CSTO, the obligation of which includes protecting Armenia's territorial integrity, refuses to fulfill its duties.