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CSTO secretary general says Armenia not pulling out of organization

The leaders of five of the six CSTO member countries gathered for the CSTO Council meeting

MINSK, November 23. /TASS/. Armenia is not going to withdraw from the Collective Security Treaty Organization and continues to engage in the group’s activities, CSTO Secretary General Imangali Tasmagambetov told reporters.

"There is currently no talk about the Republic of Armenia withdrawing from the CSTO. The Armenian side's work in the organization continues, and multilateral communication within the CSTO is going on as usual," he said to a question from TASS.

Leaders of the CSTO countries held a meeting in Minsk. The leaders of five of the six CSTO member countries gathered for the CSTO Council meeting. They were presidents Vladimir Putin of Russia, Alexander Lukashenko of Belarus, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev of Kazakhstan, Sadyr Japarov of Kyrgyzstan, and Emomali Rakhmon of Tajikistan. Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan did not attend the summit.

CSTO and Armenia

The CSTO summit in Minsk took place amid deteriorating relations between the organization and Armenia. Pashinyan previously accused the CSTO of failing to the aid of Yerevan during the clashes with Baku in May 2021 and September 2022. In this context, Yerevan asked the CSTO to remove the issue of providing assistance to the country from the agenda, while Pashinyan himself notified Lukashenko that didn’t plan to travel to Minsk. Armenian foreign Minister and defense minister did not attend CSTO events ahead of the summit. Speaker of the Armenian Parliament Alen Simonyan said he would not participate in the meeting of the CSTO Parliamentary Assembly in December. Earlier, Armenia recalled its ambassador to the CSTO and did not send a replacement.

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