Armenia announces it will not participate in CSTO’s parliamentary assembly meeting

Head of Russian State Duma informed of decision in official letter by head of Armenian parliament, says spokesman

By Burc Eruygur

ISTANBUL (AA) - Armenia announced Tuesday it will not participate in a Parliamentary Assembly of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) meeting Dec. 19 in Moscow.

“(Head of the Armenian National Assembly) Alen Simonyan will not take part in the CSTO meeting in Moscow. He informed (Russian) State Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin about this by sending him an official letter,” said his spokesman Tsovinar Khachatryan, according to Russian state news agency, TASS.

Khachatryan said a delegation of the Armenian National Assembly will not take part in the CSTO parliamentary meeting as well.

The announcement comes amid a rift between Armenia and the CSTO, due to which Yerevan has refrained from participating in events held by the alliance.

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan expressed in a parliamentary session last month that the alliance has not shown the necessary sensitivity to his country's security issues so they are “looking for other security partners.”

The CSTO is a regional military alliance made up of six post-Soviet states -- Russia, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan.

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