Speaker of the National Assembly of Armenia Alen Simonyan will not come to Moscow for the meeting of the CSTO Parliamentary Assembly, which will take place on December 19.
This information was announced on December 5 by Simonyan’s press secretary Tsovinar Khachatryan.
Her statement was posted on the website of the Armenian parliament.
Why Armenia will not participate in the CSTO PA meeting
As Khachatryan reported, Simonyan sent a letter to the Chairman of the Russian State Duma, Vyacheslav Volodin, stating that he would not participate in the CSTO PA meeting in Moscow.
The delegation of the Armenian Parliament will not take part in the meeting either. – added Simonyan’s press secretary.
Simonyan announced his intention to refuse to participate in the CSTO PA meeting at the end of November, calling his participation inappropriate in the current situation.
According to him, the CSTO does not fulfill its obligations to Armenia. The speaker of the Armenian parliament clarified that Armenia’s relations with the CSTO are not frozen, and there is no decision on withdrawal.
Armenia is reducing its participation in organizations in the former USSR. The head of the country’s government, Nikol Pashinyan, did not participate in the CSTO summit, which took place on November 23 in Minsk. The Ministers of Defense and Foreign Affairs of Armenia also refused to participate in the summit. Armenia also recalled its ambassador to the CSTO and did not appoint a new one.
Press Secretary of the Russian President Dmitry Peskov expressed regret over Armenia’s refusal to participate in CSTO events in Minsk. According to the Kremlin representative, Moscow expects Armenia to continue its work in the CSTO.
In October, the Armenian Prime Minister did not go to Bishkek for the CIS summit and the intergovernmental councils of the CIS and the EAEU.
In an interview with the American publication The Wall Street Journal, Pashinyan said that Armenia has questions about the activities of the Russian peacekeeping contingent in Nagorno-Karabakh and the positions of Russia and the CSTO related to security relations. At the same time, the Armenian Prime Minister noted that Yerevan and Moscow are conducting a dialogue in order to better understand each other.
