Armenia to Skip Upcoming CSTO Parliamentary Committee Meeting

Armenia will not be represented at the upcoming meeting of chairpersons of the parliamentary committees of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) member states, according to Movses Harutyunyan, spokesperson for Armenian Parliament Speaker Alen Simonyan.

‘The Armenian side will not participate in the meeting of chairpersons of the parliamentary committees of the CSTO member states," Harutyunyan told journalists, The Caspian Post reports, citing Armenian media.

Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said that Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov will hold a meeting with the Moscow-led security bloc parliamentarians in Moscow on February 7. The participants are expected to discuss the development of inter-parliamentary cooperation, improvement of the CSTO Parliamentary Assembly's activities, as well as to exchange views on the current international and regional issues, the Russian diplomat specified.

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan announced earlier that Yerevan had suspended its participation in the CSTO’s activities because, in his words, the organization had created threats for the country’s sovereignty. In December, Pashinyan announced that relations between Armenia and the CSTO had passed the point of no return. Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan said at an international forum in the Polish capital of Warsaw that Yerevan was calculating all risks related to a potential withdrawal from the CSTO.

However, Lavrov noted that Yerevan has not filed any paperwork regarding its withdrawal from the CSTO yet. He underscored that member states have the sovereign right to make such decisions, but expressed his certainty that it is in Armenia’s interest to make the most of its membership in this organization.