CSTO answers Pashinyan`s question about its area of responsibility
ArmInfo.The Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) considers its area of responsibility in Armenia to be its sovereign territory within the framework of settled state borders, the CSTO told RBC. This is how they responded to Yerevan's demand regarding the clarification of the organization's area of responsibility in the republic.
"The wording on the zone of responsibility is quite complex, and it
is more intended to draw attention to the situation in the republic
than to obtain a substantive answer. Because by the 2010 agreement on
the principles of interaction, which was signed in the CSTO, the zone
of responsibility is the sovereign territory of the member states ",
the organization said.
The document mentioned there is the Agreement on the status of
formations of forces and means of the collective security system,
signed in 2010 in Moscow. The CSTO noted that "the CSTO's area of
responsibility ends where the state border passes, which is settled
on a bilateral basis between Armenia and its neighbors."
On March 12, at a press conference in the government, Armenian Prime
Minister Nikol Pashinyan said that Yerevan would leave the CSTO if
the organization does not answer "the question of what is the CSTO's
area of responsibility in Armenia." According to Pashinyan, the
organization and Russia expressed a "clear position" that the
sovereign territory of Armenia is a red line for Moscow and the
organization. "However, when Armenia recorded, that the red line had
been crossed during the invasion of Azerbaijan in May 2021, the steps
indicated in the charter were not followed by the CSTO. Then it was
followed by "Azerbaijani invasions in November 2021, and September
2022", he added.