The Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has said on Thursday (20 April) that his country is ready for a Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) monitoring mission on its border with Azerbaijan.
Russia, who leads the CSTO, has now for months expressed its willingness and ability to deploy a mission to Armenia's border with Azerbaijan. An EU civilian monitoring mission has been deployed in Armenia since February of this year.
"Not only is Russia ready, Armenia is also ready. We’ve outlined the circle of our concerns, and basically our desire is for the possible mission to be effective. This is important for both Armenia, the CSTO and the region. And we continue to work in this direction," Pashinyan said.
Pashinyan also stressed that one must differentiate between the work of the current EU mission and the proposed CSTO mission.
"The CSTO has security obligations towards the Republic of Armenia, so does Armenia, which, as a member state, and Chairman in 2022, it fully implemented. The EU mission can’t be placed in the same dimension as the CSTO mission. Thus, our expectations from the CSTO mission must be a lot higher than from the EU mission," he added.