Russia's Lavrov sure CSTO membership serves Armenia’s security interests

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said that Armenia has not provided the Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO) with any documents indicating its intention to withdraw from the organisation.

He made such a statement during a press conference, Caliber.Az reports, citing Russian media.

Thus, he commented on Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan's statement that the relations between Yerevan and the CSTO have already reached an irreversible point.

“No document [on Armenia's withdrawal from the organisation] has been received,” the Russian foreign policy chief said.

Lavrov also pointed out that Pashinyan had already spoken more than once about the country's possible withdrawal from the CSTO.

As the minister said, Moscow does not intend to impose its vision of the situation on Yerevan. Nevertheless, the Russian Federation is convinced that membership in the organisation meets Armenia's security interests.

To recall, on December 4, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said that the restoration of the country's membership in the Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO) is becoming increasingly difficult, if not impossible. He continued that Armenia simply does not veto any document because it considers itself outside the CSTO.

Nikol Pashinyan has been vocal about Armenia's diminished reliance on CSTO, particularly after the group's lack of support during the 2020 Karabakh war and subsequent border clashes with Azerbaijan in 2022. Pashinyan criticized the CSTO for its failure to provide military assistance, to which Russian President Vladimir Putin said on November 28, 2024, in Astana that the CSTO was not obligated to intervene militarily on behalf of Yerevan in Karabakh, as there was no external aggression against Armenia in this case.

By Khagan Isayev