Armenia Will Not Participate in Upcoming CSTO Military Exercise

YEREVAN — Armenia will not send representatives to the upcoming military exercise conducted by the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO).

Units of special forces from CSTO-member states, including Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan, will gather in Russia’s Siberian city of Novosibirsk on August 14 for a three-day drill codenamed Cobalt-2024.

“On August 14, 2024, under the leadership of the Federal Service of the National Guard of the Russian Federation, the opening of the Cobalt-2024 exercise will take place at the department’s training center in the Novosibirsk region. The exercise will involve the command and control units of the CSTO rapid response collective forces and special purpose units. The exercises will end on August 16,” CSTO said in a statement.

Organizers did not mention Armenia among the participants of the planned exercise at the Rosgvardiya training center, which aims to improve cooperation among special forces units of the participating nations.

Armenia has been boycotting all CSTO events for the past two years after accusing the Russian-led military alliance of failing to defend its territorial integrity during border clashes with Azerbaijan in September 2022. Yerevan rejected the CSTO proposal to deploy its observers along the border until the bloc explicitly recognized the Azerbaijani invasion and occupation of hundreds of square kilometers of sovereign Armenian territory.