CSTO chief does not rule out Armenia’s possible withdrawal from the organization

The secretary general of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), an intergovernmental military alliance consisting of six post-Soviet states, Imangali Tasmagambetov has said that Armenia has not recently participated in the work of the secretariat, but has not sent notices of leaving the organization.

At the same time, he did not rule out that new countries could join the organization, according to Russia’s Kommersant news outlet.

“Yerevan has indeed not recently participated in the work of the CSTO secretariat... Regarding the mentioned statements by officials of the Republic of Armenia, I note that the secretariat has not received any official statements from Yerevan about the suspension of membership in the CSTO,” Tasmagambetov said in an interview with Igor Korotchenko, the editor-in-chief of the magazine “National Defence”.

He also said that the secretariat regularly informs the relevant structures in Yerevan about the organization’s decisions.

“Of course, such a possibility cannot be ruled out in principle... It is possible that our peacekeeping activities, the need for which, unfortunately, will only increase in the foreseeable future, will become a kind of driver in the expansion of the organization or the emergence of new formats of cooperation on the basis of the CSTO,” the secretary general said in a response to the question of the possible expansion of the CSTO.

According to Tasmagambetov, the CSTO offers very favourable conditions for participation, including priority to political and diplomatic methods of resolving crisis situations.

Currently, the CSTO includes Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia and Tajikistan.

In February, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan announced the suspension of Armenia’s participation in the CSTO. After this, the Armenian authorities notified Moscow about the departure of Russian border guards from Yerevan Zvartnots airport.

On March 12, Pashinyan allowed Armenia to leave the CSTO if Yerevan is not satisfied with the vision of the organization’s partners on the issue of where the sovereign territory of Armenia is located and where the zone of responsibility of the CSTO lies. The Russian Foreign Ministry called such rhetoric offensive.