The CSTO and its member nations have been chastised by Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan for failing to defend Armenia during the Second Nagorno-Karabakh War and Azerbaijan's following invasions in Syunik, as well as for supplying armaments to Azerbaijan. The Prime Minister made the remarks during a meeting with the leaders of member nations of the Collective Security Treaty Organisation.

“As you know, Azerbaijani forces invaded Armenian land a year ago,” Pashinyan stated during the conference. “Armenia has asked the CSTO to activate its crisis management procedures. Unfortunately, we are unable to state that the organisation performed in the manner that the Republic of Armenia would anticipate.” 

Pashinyan also chastised member nations for supplying armaments to unfriendly states to Armenia, implying that several CSTO members, including Russia, are sending weaponry to Azerbaijan. “Those weapons were utilised against Armenia and the Armenian people,” added Pashinyan. “To be honest, the behaviour of the CSTO member states during and after the 44-day war in 2020 was not very positive for the Republic of Armenia and the Armenian people.”

Meeting with Putin

Russian President Vladimir Putin had a conversation with Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan where they discussed the development of bilateral trade and economic cooperation, as well as issues of regional security, the Kremlin press service reported.

“After a certain decline in March, bilateral economic relations are expected to intensify, of course, we note the interest on the part of Russian business[es] to invest in Armenia. I know that in this matter you are also kind of pushing Russian businessmen to invest in Armenia,” Nikol Pashinyan noted during the conversation.

Vladimir Putin pointed to the growth in trade and investment between Russia and Armenia in 2021.

The Russian President and the Armenian Prime Minister discussed issues of security and stability in the South Caucasus, including the situation in separatist Nagorno-Karabakh, where a Russian peacekeeping mission has been deployed since autumn 2020.

"We continue to work actively together in the settlement of the Karabakh problem - already in a trilateral format, together with our partners from Azerbaijan," Putin stated.

Zas reacted to Pashinyan's criticism of CSTO crisis response system

Tension in the Caucasus region remains, despite the positive results in the negotiation process between Armenia and Azerbaijan. This was stated during a press conference by the Secretary General of the Collective Security Treaty Organization Stanislav Zas. The administrative head of the military-political bloc summed up the CSTO anniversary summit held in Moscow.

“Armed incidents on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border do not stop. Under these conditions, the Russian peacekeeping contingent (in Nagorno-Karabakh) plays an important role in stabilising the situation, ensuring the fulfilment of the terms of the tripartite agreements of November 9, 2020,” Zas said. “The CSTO leaders made many proposals to improve the organisation's response system,” he continued, commenting on criticism from the Prime Minister of Armenia, which currently chairs the CSTO. “This issue was discussed today, including in the second part of the meeting. Quite a lot of proposals were made to improve the crisis response system. Including the Armenian side, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan expressed his proposals,” said the CSTO Secretary General.

There were also proposals from the leaders of other member states of the bloc, taking into account the experience in Kazakhstan, where the operation of the crisis response system was worked out for the first time, he added.

A serious challenge for the CSTO countries was the sharp increase in the aggressiveness of world powers and Western military-political blocs towards Russia and its allies. During the discussion by the heads of state of the organisation, it was noted that the number of challenges and threats to security, not only in its area of ​​responsibility, but in the whole world is steadily growing. Zas further stressed that there is an expansion of NATO's military presence, the building up infrastructure and intensive measures for the operational combat training of the alliance in Eastern Europe.