Russian Ambassador: CSTO does not seek expansion by putting pressure  on its members

ArmInfo.Despite partial critique, the CSTO is an organization that functions on the basis of real equality and sovereignty of states. Russian Ambassador to  Armenia Sergey Kopyrkin expressed a similar opinion.  According to  him, it is for this reason that countries do not always manage to  agree on a solution, since nothing limits their freedom of action.

"The CSTO does not seek expansion, does not seek to go beyond the  region of its influence and does not impose any recipes for the  development, behavior of states. That is, it is really a community of  equal, sovereign states," the diplomat said, adding that this, of  course, complicates sometimes the process of coordinating certain  documents, however, corresponds to the philosophy of behavior in the  international arena.

In this vein, he expressed his conviction that this philosophy is the  future, since it is supported by the overwhelming majority of the  world's states.  In this regard, he expressed confidence that this  very philosophy is  a forward-looking,  since it is supported by the  vast majority of the world's states.

He agreed that at the last summit in Yerevan, the CSTO member states  failed to finally agree on a decision to provide assistance to  Armenia, however, as officially stated, work in this direction will  be continued.  "Russia intends to take an active part in this work,"  Kopyrkin said in an interview with the Kentron TV channel.

In conclusion, he recalled that the President of Russia highly  appreciated Armenia's chairmanship in the CSTO in 2022.

It should be noted that after the Azerbaijani large-scale military  aggression against the sovereign territory of Armenia on September  13-14, official Yerevan turned to Russia, the CSTO and the UN  Security Council for military assistance. In order to assess the  situation, the CSTO sent a mission to Armenia, which was entrusted  with the function of assessing the situation and developing a set of  measures to provide assistance. Later, the Russian side announced  that the CSTO was ready to send a monitoring mission to the border if  the CSTO CSC approved this measure. however Yerevan stated that it  expects a targeted political assessment from the CSTO  regarding the  occupation of Armenian territories.

On November 23, a meeting of the CSTO CSC was held in Yerevan, at  which a decision was to be made on rendering assistance to Armenia.  However, the Prime Minister of Armenia refused to sign the draft "On  the declaration of the CSTO Collective Security Council and joint  measures to provide assistance to the Republic of Armenia." "The lack  of a clear political assessment of the situation and failure to make  the above-mentioned decision may mean not only CSTO's refusal to  implement alliance obligations, but also be interpreted by Azerbaijan  as CSTO's green light for further aggression against Armenia.. And  this contradicts not only the letter, but also the spirit and nature  of the fundamental documents of the CSTO," Pashinyan stated during  his speech at a meeting of the CSTO CSC in Yerevan, adding that he  was not ready to sign the document in this form.