Foreign Ministry: Armenia Will Not Finance CSTO Activities

YEREVAN — Armenia will not participate in financing the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) activities, Armenian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Ani Badalyan said.

“The Republic of Armenia will refrain from joining the CSTO Collective Security Council’s decision on the CSTO Budget for 2024 and will not participate in the financing of the organization’s activities, while not objecting to the adoption of this decision in a limited format,” she told Armenia’s Public Television.

Armenian PM Nikiol Pashinyan said in February that Armenia frozen its membership in the Russian-led Collective Security Treaty Organization. He said the CSTO failed to fulfill its obligations in 2021 and 2022 to ensure Armenia’s security, ‘and we could not leave this without consequences.’

Armenia had asked Russia and other CSTO allies for military intervention after Azerbaijan launched offensive military operations along the Armenian-Azerbaijani border in September 2022.

Last year, Armenia not only avoided CSTO meetings at various levels, but also cancelled CSTO exercises in Armenia, refused to appoint an Armenian deputy head of the organization and recalled the Armenian representative to the Moscow headquarters.