Tuesday, September 10 2019 15:23

ArmInfo. Armenian Deputy Foreign Minister Shavarsh Kocharyan presented at the National Assembly draft amendments to the CSTO Charter on the status of  observers and partners of the Organization.

Kocharyan, presenting the draft amendments, emphasized that they  pursue the following goal - to implement legislative regulations that  will allow, in connection with the constitutional changes that have  taken place in the Republic of Armenia, to represent the republic at  meetings of the CSTO Supreme Body at the level of the Prime Minister.  "That was done. At this stage, the changes have been ratified by  Russia, it is important now that we do this and encourage our  partners to complete the relevant regulations," the deputy minister  said.

Kocharyan also did not agree with the statement of MP Arman  Babajanyan that Azerbaijan has a higher weight in the CSTO than  Armenia, explaining its words by the fact that Baku "secured the  recall of the Armenian secretary general." "In fact, this is not so.  The Secretary General recalled Armenia. We had two goals: in the term  of office granted to the candidate from Armenia, the representative  of another country should not have become Secretary General. The  second, since this situation showed that there was vagueness in the  Charter on about such cases that were not registered, our goal was to  regulate it and the Organization would not be in a similar situation  in the future. We have achieved both goals, "the Deputy Foreign  Minister stated, recalling that alphabetically, the post of CSTO  Secretary General will be transferred to Belarus next year, and a  package of amendments to the CSTO Charter on the regulation of such  cases has already been prepared.

Commenting on the issue of the possible acquisition of CSTO observer  or partner status by Azerbaijan, Shavarsh Kocharyan noted that  granting such status to third countries is possible only by consensus  between all member countries of the military-political bloc.