CSTO answers Pashinyan`s question about its area of responsibility

ArmInfo.The Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) considers its area of responsibility in Armenia to be its sovereign territory within the framework of settled state borders, the CSTO told RBC. This is how they responded to Yerevan's demand regarding the clarification of the organization's area of responsibility in the republic.

"The wording on the zone of responsibility is quite complex, and it  is more intended to draw attention to the situation in the republic  than to obtain a substantive answer. Because by the 2010 agreement on  the principles of interaction, which was signed in the CSTO, the zone  of responsibility is the sovereign territory of the member states ",  the organization said.

The document mentioned there is the Agreement on the status of  formations of forces and means of the collective security system,  signed in 2010 in Moscow. The CSTO noted that "the CSTO's area of  responsibility ends where the state border passes, which is settled  on a bilateral basis between Armenia and its neighbors."

On March 12, at a press conference in the government, Armenian Prime  Minister Nikol Pashinyan said that Yerevan would leave the CSTO if  the organization does not answer "the question of what is the CSTO's  area of responsibility in Armenia." According to Pashinyan, the  organization and Russia expressed a "clear position" that the  sovereign territory of Armenia is a red line for Moscow and the  organization. "However, when Armenia recorded, that the red line had  been crossed during the invasion of Azerbaijan in May 2021, the steps  indicated in the charter were not followed by the CSTO. Then it was  followed by "Azerbaijani invasions in November 2021, and September  2022", he added.