Pashinyan: next logical step will be withdrawal from CSTO

YEREVAN, 13 June. /ARKA/. The next logical step will be Armenia’s withdrawal from the Collective Security treaty Organization (CSTO), Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said today.

"I would like to remind that we did not say in our government's programme that we will remain a CSTO member. We said that there were questions, depending on the answers to which we will make decisions. We will decide when it will happen (withdrawal from the CSTO ). Perhaps in a month, perhaps in a year," Pashinyan said in parliament.

He reiterated that one of the CSTO member leaders said he took part in and supported preparations for the 44-day war in Nagorno-Karabakh in 2020 and wished victory for Azerbaijan.  

"Should I, after that, go and discuss the CSTO activitioes with the president of Belarus? Although I will have to do it in the format of the EEU. I want to fix that I will never visit Belarus again as long as Alexander Lukashenko is its president. And no Armenian official will officially visit Belarus," Pashinyan said.

He noted that Armenia’s position on the CSTO will not change until Belarus withdraws from the CSTO or apologizes in a way that will be acceptable to the Armenian people.

During his visit to Azerbaijan this past May, Belarusian President Lukashenko (Belarus is a member of the CSTO), according to local news agencies, said that before the 2020 war against Nagorno-Karabakh, he spoke with Azerbaijani President Aliyev and both came to the conclusion that Azerbaijan could win the war against Armenians.

In a February interview, Pashinyan said Armenia froze its participation in the CSTO because the bloc had failed the country.

Since then, Armenian authorities have skipped all CSTO meetings, and the Yerevan government recently refused to contribute to the CSTO's common budget.-0-