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Armenia’s Pashinyan goes to St. Petersburg for EAEU, CIS events even as Yerevan shuns CSTO

Nikol Pashinyan has been refusing to attend CSTO and CIS events for a year

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan Ilya Pitalev/POOL/TASS

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan

© Ilya Pitalev/POOL/TASS

YEREVAN, December 25. /TASS/. Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan is traveling to St. Petersburg to take part in a meeting of the Supreme Eurasian Economic Council of the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) and an informal summit of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), the Armenian government reported in a statement.

"Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has left for a two-day working visit to Russia. On December 25, the prime minister will attend a meeting of the Eurasian Economic Council in St. Petersburg, and on December 26 he will take part in an informal CIS summit," the statement reads.

The Armenian prime minister has been refusing to attend Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) and CIS events for a year. He skipped a CSTO summit in Minsk in November, expressing hope "that the CSTO partners will take this decision with understanding." As well, Pashinyan failed to attend a meeting of CIS heads of state and government in Bishkek in October.

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