The Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) is considering applying provisions of its charter to Armenia over the country’s failure to pay membership contributions for more than two years, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said at a press conference following a meeting of the CSTO Council of Foreign Ministers, The Caspian Post reports, citing TASS.

Lavrov noted that on June 7, the day of elections in Armenia, Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan commented on the country's position toward the CSTO, saying: “We do not pay contributions because we simply do not participate.”

“We discussed today how to address this situation,” Lavrov said. “For more than two years, Armenia has accumulated debt to the CSTO budget. This issue is clearly covered by the charter of the Collective Security Treaty Organization. Today, we agreed to examine the possibility of applying the relevant article of the CSTO Charter.”

Under Article 25 of the CSTO Charter, if a member state fails to settle its debt to the organization’s budget within two years, the council may suspend that country's right to nominate its citizens for quota-based positions within the organization and strip it of voting rights until the outstanding debt is fully paid.