Armenia has not announced its desire to leave the CSTO, there is a possibility that Yerevan will return to full-fledged work within the organization, Russian President Vladimir Putin told journalists on the sidelines of the CSTO summit in Astana.
“Armenia has not announced its withdrawal from the CSTO, at least not yet. It has stated that it is taking a break, but at the same time it supports all the documents that are being adopted during our meeting today. If this is so, then there is a possibility that Armenia will return to full-fledged work within the framework of this organization,” Putin said.
Commenting on Armenia’s absence from the summit, the Russian President said: “Each country has the right to choose what and how it wants to do in the area of ensuring its security. I think that the current situation between Armenia and the CSTO is most likely dictated by internal political processes in Armenia.”
Putin further noted that the events related to Nagorno-Karabakh had nothing to do with the CSTO.
“There was no aggression against Armenia. The CSTO is designed to protect member countries from external aggression. The events related to Nagorno-Karabakh have their own specifics, because Armenia did not recognize Karabakh as an independent state, and certainly did not include Karabakh in its state perimeter. This means that everything that happened in Karabakh, from a legal point of view, has no direct relation to Armenia,” Putin told journalists.
At the same time, Putin called the Nagorno-Karabakh issue very sensitive. “In my opinion, each member country of the organization must determine for itself what corresponds to its national interests,” the Russian President emphasized.
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said earlier this year Armenia had actually frozen its participation in the CSTO over the organization’s failure to fulfil its objectives in 2021 and 2022.
