Indifferent attitude led to huge disappointment: Armenian Foreign Minister on CSTO

YEREVAN, 9 December. /ARKA/. Armenia is still formally a part of the Russia-led Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO, but it said it has frozen its participation in the organisation's activities, Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan said in an interview with Finnish news agency Lännen Media.

‘For decades we thought that militarily we should be in this military alliance because we had common threats, some fears related to possible aggression against the territorial integrity and independence of the Republic of Armenia. We believed that this organisation would help us protect our sovereignty and territorial integrity. Unfortunately, in recent years we have witnessed several attacks (by Azerbaijan) and our internationally recognised borders have been violated. When this happened, we never received any real support (from (CSTO),’ Mirzoyan said.

He noted that allies with such commitments should help each other, which is the point of a military alliance.

‘This indifferent attitude led to a huge disappointment. It really changed public opinion in Armenia and created a unique situation. I cannot predict where the process will take us, but I can say that we are deepening our relations with our European partners in various areas,’ Mirzoyan said.

According to him, it is about economy, economic sustainability, as well as political dialogue and mutual understanding. There is the EU's involvement in security issues in Armenia's security domain.

‘With the EU we have a format of dialogue on political and security issues. There is an EU mission in Armenia that monitors on the Armenia-Azerbaijan border. Such developments were unimaginable a few years ago,’ Mirzoyan said.

Earlier, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said that Armenia's return to the CSTO was becoming increasingly difficult, if not impossible. -0-