Armenia’s Foreign Ministry Regards Lukashenka’s Behavior Incorrect

The ministry reacted to the dictator’s meeting with the ambassador of Azerbaijan.

Discussing internal issues of the CSTO with Baku is incorrect, spokeswoman for the Armenian Foreign Ministry Anna Naghdalyan said at a traditional briefing on Tuesday, referring to the meeting of the Belarusian leader with the ambassador of Azerbaijan, Rosbalt reports.

"Armenia considers the CSTO as a platform that deals with issues of collective security of six countries. There are problems inside the Organization that need to be attended to. And as for this situation, I want to note that this is incorrect," Naghdalyan said.

She noted that Armenia chaired the CSTO in 2015-2016. This is considered one of the most successful presidencies of Armenia in international structures.

"This is the best answer to the discussions on the Armenian presidency. Armenia has sufficient resources to complete its representation as general secretary," Naghdalyan said.

According to her, Armenia’s priority is to increase the effectiveness of the CSTO. At the same time, Naghdalyan urged not to overestimate the importance of the Secretary General, who performs an administrative role and organizes the work of the secretariat.

Important to note, the day before, Aliaksandr Lukashenka discussed the CSTO summit in Astana with the Azerbaijani ambassador in Minsk Latif Gandilov.

According to Lukashenka, the question is that Nikol Pashinyan "should simply deal with the situation in the government," because this country heads the EAEU and the CSTO. He expressed doubt that Yerevan can cope with "such large load when the country goes through a transition period."

Following the results of the CSTO summit in Astana, President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev told reporters that Armenia wants to keep the post of a general secretary. However, a year remains till the end of the term, and Nazarbayev believes that within a year the new Secretary General (if he will be from Armenia) will not even have time to go round all the countries. Against this background, the opponents of acting Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan in Armenia declare his diplomatic failure.