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.