Foreign Ministry: In terms of defense, Armenia should rely on itself, not on CSTO

 In terms of defense, Armenia should rely on itself, not on the CSTO, Armenian Deputy Foreign Minister Shavarsh Kocharyan told reporters on April 15.    

He said that Armenia can always apply to the CSTO, but the question is how expedient it is. Kocharyan also thinks that the CSTO membership does not at all mean unambiguous support of the partners within the CSTO. "Within the framework of the realpolitik processes, what is fixed on paper does not mean implementation. Otherwise, the existence of the foreign ministry would be unreasonable," Kocharyan said. 

He noted that the country that relies on others in terms of defense is doomed to destruction. "In terms of defense, Armenia should rely only on itself, not on the CSTO or other structures," he said.   

To recall, the CSTO grew out of the framework of the Commonwealth of Independent States, and first began as the CIS Collective Security Treaty (CST) which was signed on 15 May 1992, by Armenia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russian Federation, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, in the city of Tashkent.  Azerbaijan signed the treaty on 24 September 1993, Georgia on 9 December 1993 and Belarus on 31 December 1993. The treaty came into effect on 20 April 1994. The CSTO Charter says that the CSTO members take joint measures to form an efficient collective security system that ensures collective defense in case of a threat to security, stability, territorial integrity and sovereignty and exercise of the right to collective defense.