Armenian Prime Minister Will Not Participate in CSTO Meeting in Kazakhstan

YEREVAN — Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan will not participate in the Collective Security Treaty Organization’s (CSTO) summit this week in the capital of Kazakhstan, Astana, Pashinyan’s press secretary Nazeli Baghdasaryan reported today.

The meeting of leaders of post-Soviet states, which are part of the Russian-led military alliance, is scheduled for Thursday.

It will take place immediately after the joint meeting of their foreign and defense ministers and the secretaries of their security councils, which was also boycotted by Armenia. According to the press secretary, Armenia’s position regarding the ‘freezing’ of its membership in the military pact has not changed.

“Unfortunately, our Armenian colleagues have refused to participate in this event in person,” Viktor Vasiliev, the Russian ambassador to the CSTO headquarters in Moscow, told the RIA Novosti news agency. “However, they do not object to the documents that are due to be adopted in the so-called limited format.”

Armenia began boycotting high-level meetings, military exercises and other activities of the CSTO last fall before announcing an effective suspension of its membership in the organization. The move reflected a broader deterioration of Russian-Armenian relations. Pashinian’s administration has been seeking to reorient Armenia towards the West in response to what it sees as Russia’s and the CSTO’s failure to honor their security commitments to the South Caucasus state.

Pashinyan declared in September that Yerevan’s relationship with its ex-Soviet allies is likely to reach the “point of no return” because the CSTO poses an existential threat to his country.