A decision to suspend Armenia’s voting rights in the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) would require consensus among the organization’s member states, Russia’s permanent representative to the CSTO, Viktor Vasilyev, has said.
“The next session of the CSTO Collective Security Council will be held in Moscow on November 11, and the heads of state are likely to discuss this issue. If such a step is deemed necessary, the decision will be adopted by consensus,” Vasilyev said, according to RIA Novosti.
According to him, Article 25 of the CSTO Charter provides for the possibility of suspending a country’s right to nominate its citizens for quota-based positions, as well as its voting rights within the organization’s bodies, if the country fails to meet its financial obligations to the CSTO budget for two years.
“De facto, this situation has already existed for more than two years, since Armenia has not nominated its citizens for quota-based positions in the Secretariat and has also withdrawn its representatives from the CSTO Joint Staff,” he concluded.
The CSTO’s members are Russia, Belarus, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan.
Armenia froze its participation in the CSTO in 2024. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has previously said that in 2021–2022 the country’s allies failed to fulfill their obligations to Armenia under the Collective Security Treaty.
On June 10, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that because Armenia had not paid its membership contributions, the organization would consider applying the charter provision governing measures against member states that fail to meet their obligations.
