YEREVAN, May 25. /TASS/. Armenian Defense Minister Suren Papikyan’s absence from Thursday's meeting of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) defense ministers in Minsk had nothing to do with politics and everything to do with technical issues, secretary of the parliamentary faction of Armenia's ruling Civil Contract party, Artur Hovhannisyan, told a briefing Thursday.

"Firstly, we spoke at length about relations between the CSTO and Armenia, there is no plan to withdraw from the organization. Suren Papikyan's non-participation in this event is in no way related to Armenia-CSTO relations. I don't know the details, but I am sure there is no political context here, these are some technical issues. It has nothing to do with the CSTO," he said.

Earlier, Armenian Defense Ministry Spokesperson Aram Torosyan told TASS that the minister did not go to Minsk and did not participate in the meeting of the CSTO defense ministers.