CSTO exercises will not be held in Armenia in 2023 - Prime Minister

YEREVAN, January 10. /ARKA/. Armenia will not host Collective Security Treaty Organization’s (CSTO) war games, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said to a press conference today.

"Armenian Defense Minister Suren Papikyan has already informed the CSTO Joint Staff that in this situation we consider it inexpedient to host CSTO exercises on Armenian territory and they will not take place this year," the prime minister said.

Earlier, the Russian Defense Ministry said that Russian servicemen of the Ground Forces will be involved in CSTO peacekeeping drills «Unbreakable Brotherhood - 2023" on the territory of Armenia.

Pashinyan also said that Armenia has not received an official offer to join the Russia-Belarus Union State.

"There was not and could not have been an official offer to join the Union State, but the reality is not as simple as it seems. Sometimes we have to deeply consider not so much the content of the issues, but their subtext," Pashinyan said.

Earlier, the secretary of Security Council of Armenia Armen Grigoryan argued that there was a lot of pressure on Armenia to join the Union State, but he did not specify where from the pressure came.

Last December, Armenian parliament passed a law criminalizing calls to deny or limit the sovereignty of the Republic of Armenia in favor of another state or an international or supranational organization. --0--