Armenia's withdrawal from CSTO not under consideration now - diplomat

YEREVAN. May 16 (Interfax) - Armenia is not currently considering its withdrawal from the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), although everything depends on how the situation develops, Deputy Foreign Minister Mnatsakan Safaryan said.

"There is no question of our withdrawal from the CSTO at the moment," Safaryan told journalists on Tuesday.

Asked whether new discussions on the country's withdrawal from the organization are possible, Safaryan replied, "Everything depends on the situation."

Armenia considered withdrawing from the CSTO after Azerbaijan's act of aggression in September 2022, he said.

"It looks like the matter was discussed at the Security Council, but it was decided not to make this step and continue to work," Safaryan said.

Some issues were later discussed at the CSTO summit in Yerevan in November 2022, he said.

"Work is continuing now. There're going to be discussions on [the CSTO's] statement on the situation in the South Caucasus. The situation is complicated, and as a CSTO member also having some obligations, we keep hoping that our steps and our work will produce some results. There's still such hope," Safaryan said.

Yerevan expects the CSTO to make a political judgment about Azerbaijan's actions against Armenia in September 2022, Safaryan said.

"Discussions could start at some moment" on deploying a CSTO monitoring mission in Armenia, he said.

At the CSTO summit in Yerevan on November 23, 2022, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan refused to sign a draft declaration of the CSTO Collective Security Council and a draft on joint measures for providing assistance to Armenia.