Member states of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) have agreed to consider invoking a provision of the organization’s charter in response to Armenia’s failure to pay its membership contributions for more than two years, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said, TASS reports.
Speaking at a press conference following a meeting of the CSTO Council of Foreign Ministers, Lavrov referred to remarks made by Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan on June 7, the day of Armenia’s parliamentary elections.
“On June 7, my colleague Ararat Mirzoyan, responding to a question about the CSTO, said: ‘We are not paying contributions because we simply do not participate,’” Lavrov stated.
“What should be done in this situation was discussed today. Armenia’s debt to the CSTO budget has exceeded two years. This is a situation envisaged by the Charter of the Collective Security Treaty Organization, and today we agreed to examine the possibility of applying the relevant article of the CSTO Charter,” he added.
According to Article 25 of the CSTO Charter, if a member state fails to settle its debt to the organization’s budget for a period of two years, the CSTO Council may decide to suspend that state’s right to nominate its citizens for quota-based positions within the organization. The member state may also be deprived of voting rights in CSTO bodies until the outstanding debt is fully repaid.
Armenia has effectively frozen its participation in CSTO activities in recent years, citing concerns over the organization’s response to regional security challenges.
