The Armenian government appealed to the CSTO for help shortly after Azerbaijani troops reportedly crossed several sections of the Armenian-Azerbaijani border and advanced a few kilometers into Armenian territory in May 2021. It asked the alliance of six ex-Soviet states to invoke Article 2 of its founding treaty which requires a collective response to grave security threats facing one of them.
Russia and other CSTO member states expressed concern over the border tensions but did not issue joint statements in support of Armenia. Armenian leaders have repeatedly criticized that stance.
Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan reiterated the criticism after hosting a meeting in Yerevan with the fellow top diplomats of Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan.
“While the organization responded in a timely manner to the events in Kazakhstan in January the issue still remains open in connection with the invasion of Azerbaijani troops into the sovereign territory of Armenia, which began in May 2021,” he told the press.
Mirzoyan made clear at the same time that Yerevan is intent on “stepping up cooperation between member states” of the bloc. That includes ensuring a closer coordination of their foreign policies and “enhancing the CSTO’s role in the international arena,” he said.
In a joint statement issued after the meeting, the CSTO foreign ministers did not explicitly mention Russia’s war with Ukraine. They voiced concern at the “continuing degradation of the system of international security.” They said all countries must respect “the principle of equal and indivisible security.”
From Moscow’s perspective, “indivisible security” means that NATO must pledge not to admit Ukraine and to scale back its military presence near Russia’s borders. The U.S. and its NATO allies rejected these demands in the run-up to the Russian invasion of Ukraine which began on February 24.
Belarus is the only non-Russian CSTO country to have publicly backed the invasion. Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko chided the other member states for their more cautious stance when he spoke at a CSTO summit in Moscow last month.
