The decision of the Armenian leadership not to participate in CSTO events causes regret. This was announced by the official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova.
"We do not believe that this decision corresponds to the interests of the Armenian people and will contribute to the security and stability of our friendly country. The Armenian colleagues do not intend to stop their work in the statutory bodies of the organization, to prevent the implementation of the already agreed documents. Basically, it leaves open doors for Yerevan and enables [it] to join the work later. We hope that the Armenian allies will take advantage of this opportunity already in the not-distant future," she said.
Zakharova emphasized that Russia is convinced that the CSTO will play an important role in regional stability in the current conditions.
"A CSTO monitoring mission on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border, the decision about which is ‘on the table’ as before, would be quite a weighty factor in ensuring Armenia's security, unlike the [current] EU [monitoring] mission [in Armenia], which continues to demonstrate its ineffectiveness," said the official representative of the Russian foreign ministry.
