Armenia Assumes CSTO Chairmanship

By Asbarez | Tuesday, 21 September 2021



During the summit of the Collective Security Treaty Organization in Tajikistan’s capital, Dushanbe, on Thursday, Armenia assumed the chairmanship of the Russia-led security organization.

The CSTO leaders also decided to hold large-scale military exercises in Tajikistan in the near future, which will involve various units of the Armed Forces of member states, and to hold the next meeting of the organization’s Security Council in Yerevan in the fourth quarter of 2022.

Addressing the summit, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said Armenia would like its partners to focus on consistent joint efforts aimed at the dynamic development of the organization and increase of the effectiveness of its mechanisms.

“In our opinion, it is necessary to continue working on deepening coordination of foreign policy and mutual assistance to develop joint approaches to international and regional issues affecting the interests of the CSTO member states,” said Pashinyan. “To this end, we attach great importance to the holding of regular multi-level consultations, including in the “high-level group,” of which the Deputy Foreign and Defense Ministers are members. In our opinion, the practice of adopting joint statements has justified itself, and it must continue.”

“The logic of development of the situation in different regions of collective security has clearly shown the need to modernize crisis response mechanisms. The need for crisis monitoring, forecasting and prevention mechanisms is obvious. In practice, all this will take place, including through the full operation of the Crisis Response Center,” he added.

Pashinyan said that Armenia intends to work closely with CSTO member-states to increase the level of combat effectiveness, combat readiness, harmony and mobility of the CSTO forces.

“There is no doubt that the potential of the CSTO Collective Forces needs to be modernized, developed, supplemented with modern technologies, including drone, equipped with modern means,” Pashinyan said, attaching importance to improving the management of all this.

“It will be of great importance for our organization to further improve the measures and mechanisms for combating terrorism, extremism, ensuring information security, fighting against drugs, illegal migration, and human trafficking,” Pashinyan continued.

Armenia proposed to take steps to strengthen CSTO’s authority in the international arena, including through expansion of cooperation with other interested international organizations. In this regard he attached importance to making maximum use of and developing the experience of joint work with the US, OSCE and other organizations.

“During Armenia’s presidency, we intend to resume the practice of holding security conferences in Yerevan, taking into account the already established dialogue with the CSTO, OSCE and UN bodies. We have already heard a matching approach from our Kazakh friends, we are ready to work closely together,” Pashinyan said.

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