“The issue is under discussion,” Deputy Foreign Minister Vahan Kostanian told reporters. He gave no reason for the delay.
The decisions made by the presidents of Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan at the November 23 meeting in Minsk included the creation of CSTO member states’ new joint air-defense system. The secretary general of the military alliance, Imangali Tasmagambetov, submitted their copies to the Armenian government for consideration during a December visit to Yerevan. Tasmagambetov was only received by Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan.
Pashinian’s boycott of the Minsk summit highlighted Armenia’s growing estrangement from the CSTO, which is calling into question its continued membership in the bloc.
Armenia officially requested military aid from its CSTO allies after Azerbaijan’s offensive military operations launched along the Armenian-Azerbaijani border in September 2022. It has since repeatedly accused them of ignoring the request in breach of the CSTO’s statutes and declared mission.
Yerevan has not only shunned various-level CSTO meetings but also cancelled a CSTO exercise in Armenia slated for 2023, refused to name an Armenian deputy head of the organization and recalled the Armenian representative to its Moscow headquarters in September.
Russian President Vladimir Putin suggested in December that Armenia is not planning to leave the CSTO and attributed Yerevan’s boycott of the organization to internal “processes” taking place in the country. By contrast, the Russian Foreign Ministry earlier accused Pashinian of systematically “destroying” Russian-Armenian relations.