Karapetyan announces readiness to withdraw from CSTO

Leader of the Strong Armenia party and Russian entrepreneur Samvel Karapetyan stated that if elected prime minister, he is ready to pursue Armenia's withdrawal from the CSTO "if it turns out that the organization does not bring benefits."

"First of all, we will examine the processes of why the CSTO behaved that way, why Russia behaved that way. If we see that it is, as you [the journalist] said, a meaningless organization, then of course we will leave," he said during a press conference.

He noted that the cause of the problems may be that "it was precisely the Armenian authorities who failed to cooperate with the CSTO."

In September 2024, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan stated that Yerevan had frozen its participation in the CSTO, since, according to him, the organization "created threats to the sovereignty of the republic." In October 2024, Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan said at an international security forum in Warsaw that Yerevan was assessing all risks regarding a decision to withdraw from the CSTO. In December of the same year, the Armenian prime minister announced that relations between Armenia and the CSTO had passed the point of no return.

Source: TASS