Russia regrets Armenia's absence at CSTO summit in Minsk
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YEREVAN, November 23. /ARKA/. The Russian Federation regrets Armenia's absence at the summit of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) in Belarusian Minsk and hopes that Yerevan is not changing the vector of its foreign policy and remains Moscow's ally, Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, according to Tass news agency.
"We can express regret in this regard. The CSTO continues its work," the Kremlin spokesman said in an interview with Rossiya-1 TV channel.
Peskov noted that the summit's agenda includes "the so-called Armenian factor" and an exchange of views on the issue.
"Of course, the CSTO is interested in Armenia's continued membership. We hope that Armenia is not changing the vector of its foreign policy and remains our ally, our strategic partner - both bilaterally and in terms of interaction in multilateral formats. We will continue to talk to them," Peskov said.
Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan and Defense Minister Suren Papikyan refused to participate in a joint meeting of the CSTO foreign and defense ministers, scheduled for November 22 in Belarusian capital Minsk.
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan neither traveled to Minsk for the CSTO summit. Earlier, Pashinyan said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal that Azerbaijan's aggressive actions and inaction of the CSTO forced Armenia to seek to diversify its relations in the security area.
Earlier this year, Pashinyan told a press conference that Armenia would not host CSTO military exercises in 2023, saying Armenia expected the Russia-led military pact to make a clear-cut assessment of Azerbaijan’s continued occupation of chunks of Armenia’s sovereign territories. Pashinyan said Armenia wanted to 'understand what the area of the CSTO’s responsibility is.”
In another rift between Armenia and CSTO Yerevan chose not to fill its quota for the CSTO Deputy Secretary General. Armenia also recalled its ambassador from the military alliance and has not appointed a replacement yet. -0-
