Armenia could lose its voting rights in the CSTO as early as this fall
Russia has stated that the issue of stripping Armenia of its voting rights in the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) may be brought up for consideration during the CSTO summit scheduled for November 11.
According to Russian officials, this issue may be one of the items on the agenda of the upcoming meeting of the organization’s member states.
A representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry hinted that stripping Yerevan of its voting rights in the CSTO could be considered at the next summit in light of the country’s failure to fulfill its obligations.
“Any decisions regarding the possible imposition of restrictive measures against one of the organization’s members fall entirely within the prerogative of the Collective Security Council, which has the right to make such decisions based on the provisions of the organization’s charter,” Galuzin said.
According to him, the CSTO Charter is an international treaty and must be complied with by all its parties, including each member state’s obligation to finance the activities of the organization’s bodies.
“Yerevan’s refusal to participate in the organization’s work and its failure to sign the annual decisions on its budget merely constitutes a failure to exercise its right, but does not terminate Armenia’s obligations regarding the timely transfer of its national contribution,” the Russian diplomat noted.
“Based on the principle of maintaining institutional effectiveness, every international organization has procedures in place for such cases, as set forth in its founding documents. The CSTO is no exception,” he added.
This was stated by Mikhail Galuzin, Deputy Foreign Minister of the Russian Federation, in an interview with TASS.
As a reminder, Moscow raised the issue of stripping Armenia of its voting rights in the CSTO.
The Kremlin expressed dissatisfaction with the elections in Armenia following Pashinyan’s victory.
Armenia has appealed to the EU to send a rapid-response team to counter Russian influence.
