Russia hopes for Armenia's continued work in CSTO format - Peskov

YEREVAN, November 24. /ARKA/. Russia hopes that Armenia will continue its participation in the work of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in an interview with Russian Channel One, Tass reported.

"We paid attention to the statement made by the Armenian Foreign Ministry about the absence of any plans to refuse to participate in the further work of this organization," the Kremlin spokesman said.

According to him, this is very important. "Therefore, everyone assumes that, naturally, the conversation with our Armenian friends will continue," Peskov said.

He added that the Kremlin expects the Armenian side to be more actively involved during subsequent contacts.

On Thursday Armenian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Ani Badalyan said that Yerevan will consider the issue of Armenia's accession to the documents signed at the CSTO meeting in Belarus on November 23. Armenian prime minister as well as defense and foreign ministers did not participate in that gathering.

According to Belarusian Foreign Minister Sergei Aleinik, CSTO Secretary General Imangali Tasmagambetov will visit Yerevan after the organization's summit in Minsk to hand over to his Armenian counterparts all the decisions that were finalized by the conciliation commission.

"We will count on them to join them," he said. -0-