“CSTO is of strategic significance for Armenia”, PM Pashinyan says

The Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) is of strategic significance for Armenia, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said during a meeting with heads of parliaments of CSTO countries who are currently in Armenia to participate in the organization’s Parliamentary Assembly session.

“We find that the CSTO is the important factor for stability and security in our region. We attach great importance to all three directions of our cooperation within the framework of the CSTO. First of all is the domestic political coordination, the military-technical cooperation, and of course our common approach to general threats in the security sector. The threats, unfortunately, are also developing and changing, and we must be adequate to these threats. Our organization must conform to the realities which exist in the region, in the world, and I am very happy that we are rather constructively cooperating in the direction of the CSTO’s further development,” PM Nikol Pashinyan said.

He was also pleased to note that member states have succeeded in agreeing upon appointing a new Secretary General and noted that certain legal amendments are required in the CSTO charter in order to avoid similar problems in the future.

Secretary of the Security Council of Belarus Stanislav Zas will assume the office of the Secretary General of the CSTO from January 1, 2020.

Lt. General Yuri Khachaturov of Armenia was the most recent Secretary General. The position was vacated in November 2018 when Armenia pressed criminal charges against Khachaturov regarding his actions as head of the Yerevan garrison in the 2008 post election unrest. He was relieved from duties as Secretary General of the CSTO in November 2018.