YEREVAN, March 14. /TASS/. Armenia has no plans to withdraw from the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) but the bloc is abandoning its positions in the country, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said at a press conference on Tuesday.

"In 2022, the CSTO president (secretary general – TASS) told me the CSTO was concerned that Armenia would leave the organization. I replied that those concerns were baseless but the concerns that Armenia had about the CSTO leaving Armenia were justified. My assessment is that wittingly or unwittingly, the CSTO is leaving Armenia, and that worries us," he pointed out.

Pashinyan added that Armenia would agree to appoint its representative as CSTO deputy secretary general once it was confident that the move would strengthen the country’s security. He noted that Armenia continued to consistently work with the CSTO.

Armenian Ambassador to the UK Varuzhan Nersesyan said in an interview with Times Radio on January 20 that Yerevan wasn’t satisfied with Russia’s reaction to Azerbaijan's actions as it had expected specific assistance measures from Moscow within the CSTO. He added, however, that Armenia appreciated the activities of Russian peacekeepers in Nagorno-Karabakh. Pashinyan announced on January 10 that Armenia had no plans to host any CSTO exercises in 2023 under the current conditions. Russia’s Foreign Ministry stated that Yerevan preferred to opt for the European Union, failing to carry work on an CSTO mission to its logical end. Meanwhile, Pashinyan said on February 18 that Armenia and other CSTO countries continued efforts to resolve issues that caused concern for Yerevan.

The CSTO brings together Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia and Tajikistan.