Prime Minister of the Republic of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan arrived in the Russian Federation on May 16 on a working visit.

Nikol Pashinyan will take part in the meeting of the leaders of the CSTO member states in Moscow, the Kremlin.

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Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan participated in the meeting of the leaders of the member states of the Collective Security Treaty Organization in the Kremlin. Russian President Vladimir Putin met the CSTO leaders: Prime Minister of the Republic of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan, President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko, President of Kazakhstan Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, President of Tajikistan Emomali Rahmon, President of Kyrgyzstan Sadyr Japarov. Following the ceremonial photo-video session, the meeting took place at the St Alexander's Hall of the Kremlin.

In his speech, Prime Minister Pashinyan congratulated the attendees on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the Collective Security Treaty signed on May 15, 1992, and on the 20th anniversary of the decision of May 14, 2002 to establish the Collective Security Treaty Organization.

In particular, the Prime Minister welcomed the CSTO leaders and thanked them for the warm reception. "Of course, the anniversary of our Organization is also a very good opportunity to summarize certain results and discuss the prospects of further development of the Organization.

Alexander Grigoryevich, of course, raised many important issues related to the cooperation between the CSTO member states, and the President of Belarus, to be honest, touched upon quite problematic issues. In general, it should be noted that there is a lot of positive in the history of the CSTO, as it has been, is and will be a key factor in ensuring security and stability in the region. As we can see, today, at the jubilee summit we are discussing not only jubilee issues, given today’s quite tense situation in the CSTO area of responsibility. And I would like to address some of the issues that the President of Belarus talked about.

As for the voting of the member states of our Organization, of course, we have some problems here. Often our votes are not in harmony, and it should be noted that this is not a new problem, it accompanies our Organization for a long time. Armenia has raised this issue many times, it has been discussed many times in the working process. Obviously, it needs further discussion.

As for the partnership and rapid reaction mechanisms, this is also a very important issue for Armenia, because as you know, just during these days last year, the Azerbaijani troops invaded the sovereign territory of Armenia and Armenia applied to the CSTO for launching the mechanisms envisaged by the CSTO Crisis situations response procedures of December 10, 2010. That document has been approved by the Collective Security Council, but, unfortunately, we cannot say that the Organization reacted in the way the Republic of Armenia would expect.

Also, for a long time, we have been raising the issue of selling arms by CSTO member states to countries not friendly to Armenia. As a result, those weapons were used against Armenia and the Armenian people. This is also a problem, to be honest, the reaction of the CSTO member states during the 44-day war in 2020, and also after the war, was not so encouraging for the Republic of Armenia and the Armenian people.

But I would like to emphasize the special role of the Russian Federation and personally President Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin in ending the war in Nagorno-Karabakh. And I want to once again affirm that Armenia remains committed to the trilateral statements by the Presidents of the Russian Federation and Azerbaijan and Prime Minister of Armenia of November 9, 2020, January 11 and November 26, 2021.

I think it is very good and important to summarize the results. Armenia, as a founding member of the CSTO, is committed to the further development of the Organization. We consider the Organization a key factor in ensuring security and stability in the Eurasian region and the Republic of Armenia, and in general, we are positive about fully supporting the organization and its further development."

Then, the CSTO leaders signed documents summarizing the results of today's CSTO session.

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Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan held a private conversation with President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin in the Kremlin.

The Russian President said, “Honorable Nikol Vladimirovich, we are in constant touch, discussing issues of bilateral agenda and regional issues. However, there are always numerous questions, which obviously indicates the intensity of our dialogue. At the beginning of our bilateral talks, I would like to note that over the past year we have seen a significant increase in trade turnover, investments continue, and we continue to work actively on the settlement of the Karabakh conflict in the trilateral format, together with our Azerbaijani partners. There are many issues, I am glad to have the opportunity to meet you and talk about all topics."

In turn, The Prime Minister of Armenia said, “Honorable Vladimir Vladimirovich, let me once again thank you for organizing the CSTO jubilee summit and for the traditional warm reception. Of course, the 30th anniversary of the Collective Security Treaty and the 20th anniversary of the Collective Security Treaty Organization are remarkable events, and I think we had a very meaningful conversation. It is very important that this conversation is future oriented, it’s about the further development of our Organization.

Of course, less than a month has passed since my first official visit to the Russian Federation. We had a very meaningful conversation then, and as you rightly noted, our bilateral agenda is so abundant that we could meet more often. We are in constant touch, we often have telephone conversations. In terms of the economy, I would like to note that after a certain decline in March, intensification of bilateral economic ties is noticeable. We see investment interest from Russian business, wishing to invest in Armenia. And I know that in this issue you are also encouraging Russian businessmen to invest in Armenia. I want to thank you for that.

Of course, I hope that today we will discuss issues related to regional security, stability, the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, as well as the important role of the OSCE Minsk Group, as we mentioned in our joint statement. I would like to share some information with you, so thank you for the meeting."