Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan has decided not to participate in the joint session of the CSTO Council of Foreign Ministers, the Council of Defense Ministers, and the Committee of Secretaries of the Security Council scheduled for November 22 in Minsk. The reasons for non-participation were not mentioned in the message from the Foreign Ministry of Armenia. Mirzoyan announced his decision during a telephone conversation with his Belarusian counterpart, Sergey Aleynik.
During the telephone conversation, which was at the initiative of the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Belarus, the parties discussed issues related to CSTO activity. Mirzoyan and Aleynik also exchanged ideas on the Armenian-Belarusian bilateral agenda.
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan also announced that he will not participate in the CSTO Collective Security Council session to be held in Minsk on November 23. Official Yerevan has repeatedly expressed dissatisfaction with the alliance. Armenia had demanded that the CSTO condemn Azerbaijan’s invasion of Armenia’s sovereign territory in September 2022, but the CSTO did not fulfill this demand.
At the beginning of the year, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan announced at a press conference that CSTO military exercises would not take place in Armenia that year, clarifying that they are still waiting for specific assessments from the CSTO to understand the area of responsibility of the alliance. Armenia also gave up its quota for the CSTO Deputy Secretary General, recalled its ambassador from the military alliance and has not appointed a new one until now.