Armenia’s Parliamentary Speaker Alen Simonyan has said his country was “de facto” no longer part of the Russia-led Collective Security Treaty Organisation, CSTO military bloc.
“We are de facto out. As for the rest leave it to our political expediency and our negotiations,” Simonyan said on Wednesday while speaking to reports in the Parliament. He clarified that Yerevan’s decision not to participate in CSTO’s recent summit in Kyrgyzstan’s capital Bishkek reflected the current state of relations with the bloc.
His comments came days after Russian President Vladimir Putin’s aide Yuri Ushakov confirmed that Yerevan would sit out the CSTO summit in Bishkek, though Yerevan had not objected to the adoption of agreed documents.
Simonyan’s statement contradicted recent remarks from the Foreign Ministry that a withdrawal from the CSTO was not on the agenda. He stated that Armenia’s position “has already been declared”, and that Yerevan was refraining from engaging in CSTO activities while not blocking documents agreed to by other member states.
‘Armenia conducts its foreign policy based on interests, according to the situation that is created. Armenia’s balancing policy has been announced, and Armenia makes decisions within that framework,’ Safaryan said.
In February last year, Yerevan announced it had frozen its participation in the CSTO due to the bloc’s failure to secure Armenia's security following the cross-border clashes with Azerbaijan. Earlier, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said his country would consider leaving the CSTO unless the bloc clarified its area of responsibility in Armenia.
