The CSTO proposed a whole set of assistance measures to Armenia, including sending a mission to the border with Azerbaijan to assess the situation, Secretary General of the organization Stanislav Zas said, RIA Novosti reports.
“The situation is not easy, first of all on the border of Armenia and Azerbaijan: there are skirmishes almost every day. In general, the complex of measures that the CSTO offers as assistance to Armenia and in which there are various measures, both political, diplomatic, and military, including sending a mission to this border, where it will realistically assess the situation, in general received support from all states,” Zas said in an interview with the Belarusian ОНТ TV channel.
According to him, “the only thing that has not been achieved (by the leaders of the CSTO countries, ed.) is a consolidated assessment of the situation created there.”
Notably, the regular session of the CSTO Collective Security Council was held in Yerevan last week. Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said that he was not ready to sign the draft declarations of the CSTO Collective Security Council and on joint measures to provide assistance to Armenia, presented at the November 23 summit for signing, stressed that the documents were “insufficiently finalized.”
“Armenia also proposes, by the decision of the CSTO Collective Security Council, to speed up the necessary political and diplomatic work with the Azerbaijani side, aimed at the immediate and unconditional withdrawal of the Azerbaijani troops from the sovereign territory of the Republic of Armenia to their original positions as of 11 May, 2021.
Such a position is important not only for restoring the territorial integrity of the Republic of Armenia, but also for restraining Azerbaijan from further aggressive actions against our country. The fact that the danger of Azerbaijan’s new aggression against Armenia’s territorial integrity remains, On 28 October, CSTO Secretary General Stanislav Vasilii Zas announced at the extraordinary session of the CSTO Collective Security Council. In these conditions, the lack of a clear political assessment of the situation and failure to implement the above-mentioned decision may mean not only CSTO’s refusal of alliance obligations, but also be interpreted by Azerbaijan as CSTO’s green light for further aggression against Armenia.
And this contradicts not only the letter, but also the spirit and meaning of the fundamental documents of the CSTO. Therefore, based on this, dear colleagues, at this moment I think that the draft “On the Declaration of the CSTO Collective Security Council and Joint Measures to provide Assistance to the Republic of Armenia” presented for signing has not been sufficiently finalized, and in this form, with all due respect, I am not ready to sign this the documents,” Pashinyan said.
