Pashinyan criticized the CSTO and refused to sign the statement
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has refused to sign a draft declaration on joint measures to provide assistance to his country. In particular, he criticized the lack of political assessment of Azerbaijan’s actions.
“A political assessment is necessary, first of all, from a moral point of view, since this should be a logical manifestation of allied relations. Of course, this is also important from the point of view of restoring the territorial integrity of our country, but this desire by itself does not mean military intervention,” he noted.
According to him, Armenia is in favor of the CSTO conducting political and diplomatic work with Azerbaijan so that it withdraws its troops from its territories.
“Under these conditions, the lack of a clear political assessment of the situation and the inability to take the aforementioned decision may mean not only the CSTO’s rejection of allied obligations, but may also be interpreted by Azerbaijan as a go-ahead of the CSTO for further aggression against Armenia,” added Pashinyan.
He also stressed that the project to assist Armenia was not finalized and refused to sign it.
Lukashenka allowed the collapse of the CSTO due to the war in Ukraine. And he called the condition
The Belarusian dictator, in his speech at the session of the Collective Security Council, noted that recently there have been opinions that the future of the CSTO depends on the outcome of the war in Ukraine.
“If (Russia, – ed.) wins, the CSTO will live. If it does not win, the CSTO will not exist. I feel that we have come to a common opinion that if, God forbid, Russia collapses, then our place is under this rubble” – said Lukashenka.
At the same time, he stressed that the member countries of the CSTO do not intend to leave the military-political arena.
How did Russia react?
According to the press secretary of the President of the Russian Federation Dmitry Peskov, one can partially agree with Lukashenka’s statement.
“We can agree with the proviso that the success of the special operation is beyond doubt,” he said.
As for the allegations of the Armenian side, then, in his opinion, Pashinyan has the right to look at the situation this way.
“Yes, the Prime Minister of Armenia, speaking in a narrow format, said that he was more likely to interpret the work of the CSTO on the situation between Armenia and Azerbaijan as a fiasco. This is the Armenian side’s point of view, this is the right of the Armenian side to look at the situation in this way,” he stressed.
It should be noted that the UEC includes Russia, Belarus, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. The only joint operation took place in early 2022 in Kazakhstan as the country faced anti-government protests and unrest.
