News - Russia FM: Armenia borders need to be defined before saying CSTO is obligated to indicate its area of responsibility

Armenia itself has not yet delimited its border with Azerbaijan, said Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, commenting on Yerevan's demands regarding the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO). According to him, when they say in Armenia that CSTO is unable to determine its area of responsibility in the country, then Yerevan itself did not decide this. Lavrov drew attention to the statement of the Armenian authorities about the readiness to respect the borders within the framework of the Alma Ata declaration of 1991, which means that Nagorno-Karabakh is part of Azerbaijan. "But in parallel to that, they set up a border delimitation commission. At the same time, [Armenian PM] Nikol Pashinyan announced four non-enclave villages in Tavush Province, which he is ready to transfer [to Azerbaijan]. He is now convincing the population in that region that it would be wrong to do otherwise. And the border of 1991, which Pashinyan wanted the CSTO to confirm and protect, is not taken into account," Lavrov said. According to him, these borders become "mobile" in the process of talking about border delimitation and unilateral steps. "Therefore, before saying that the CSTO is obligated to indicate its area of responsibility, it is necessary to define the borders of Armenia, to complete the border delimitation, which the Armenian leadership is actively doing," the Russian FM said. He recalled that the CSTO fully agreed on a document at the Yerevan summit in 2022, and all ministers approved it, on the transfer of additional weapons for border protection, the holding of special exercises, and the deployment of a CSTO mission on the border. "All ministers, including those of Armenia, approved this document. But the next morning, when the [Armenian] prime minister opened the summit, he said that there was no consensus. But there was a consensus in the Armenian society about the EU [monitoring] mission [in Armenia], which was promised for two months, now it is unlimited, the Canadians are already there, and other NATO members want to go there as well. This is no longer a mission of the European Union, it will be a NATO mission," Lavrov said. At least, according to him, when the document recognizing Karabakh as part of Azerbaijan and recognizing the Alma Ata declaration was signed, it did not say anything about the need to ensure the special rights of the Armenian national minority in Azerbaijan. Therefore, according to Lavrov, it is wrong to say that the Armenians left Nagorno-Karabakh because of the inaction of the Russian peacekeepers. The Russian FM expressed hope that there will be contacts between the leaders of Armenia and Russia, where all these issues can be discussed without the arguments "thrown by Western ill-wishers."