Ahead of an announced emergency session of the CSTO Security Council on Friday, the foreign ministers of Armenia and Russia, Ararat Mirzoyan and Sergei Lavrov held a telephone conversation to discuss preparations for the meeting.
The Friday meeting will focus of the CSTO’s mission to Armenia following the September 13 attack by Azerbaijan. A day after the large-scale offensive by Azerbaijan, Armenia, a member-state, appealed to the Russia-led Collective Security Treaty Organization for assistance. Instead the organization sought to send a fact-finding mission and later its secretary-general, Stanislav Zas, toured the Armenian border regions affected by the attacks.
“The ministers discussed a number of topical issues of Armenian-Russian relations, preparations for the extraordinary session of the CSTO Collective Security Council and upcoming high-level contacts,” said a statement form the Russian foreign ministry on Thursday.
“The extraordinary session of the CSTO Collective Security Council will take place on October 28, 2022. During the session, it is planned to discuss the results of the work of the CSTO mission sent to Armenia on September 15, 2022 by the decision of the CSTO Collective Security Council, in connection with the escalation of the situation on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border. It is also planned to discuss joint measures to provide assistance to the Republic of Armenia,” the statement explained.
On October 12, during a meeting with Mirzoyan, Lavrov said that sending a CSTO observer mission was not out of the question. He said that since Armenia had the rotating chairmanship of the group, it would have to plan and call for a security council session. Lavrov’s remarks came day after the European Union announced the dispatch of its own mission to Armenia, which kicked off last week.
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan told lawmakers on Wednesday that the CSTO must help Armenia win back its territory occupied by Azerbaijan and called for the group to provide military assistance.
