Acting Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan was surprised by the fact that the President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko, after the closed session of the CSTO Collective Security Council, told the Ambassador of Azerbaijan to Belarus about the session that took place in a closed format.

According to “Armenpress”, in a conversation with journalists at the Defender of the Fatherland Rehabilitation Center, the Acting Prime Minister was asked how he would interpret the fact that Alexander Lukashenko He presented the situation in the CSTO to the Ambassador of Azerbaijan, he replied. – “Our Ministry of Foreign Affairs has already responded. Now imagine the same situation if I invite any foreign ambassador who is not a member of the Collective Security Treaty Organization and tell me about the closed session. It is a closed-door meeting of the military-political alliance, where the leaders of the member states have a discussion. If the session is closed, it means that it is a closed conversation between allies. And I am surprised that a person who has been the head of state for 30 years or I don’t know how many years can afford such a step. Of course, I have to demand clarifications from the President of Belarus and not only from the President of Belarus.”

According to Pashinyan, President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev also made a statement contradicting the agreements, announcing after the closed session of the CSTO summit that the representative of Belarus will be appointed to the post of CSTO Secretary General.

“No one had the right to make such a statement, because decisions in the CSTO are made by consensus, and we have clearly expressed our position. unless we decide otherwise in a partnership environment, no one else has the right to make such a statement. Our foreign minister has also clearly formulated our position today, and I want to say that we think it is important that we have a very clear conversation with our allies within the framework of the CSTO, and for each of the parties to be clear about what obligations they have towards the others and what obligations the others have towards them,” Pashinyan emphasized.

The Acting Prime Minister also informed that he discussed this issue during his telephone conversation with the President of Russia today. – “We continue our dialogue with our partners – Russia, we will continue with Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, in order to eventually reach mutual understanding.”

Nikol Pashinyan answered the question: under any circumstances, is it possible for the Armenian side to reach a consensus on the issue of the Belarusian candidate? – “We work in a partnership atmosphere and environment, we maintain fairness and respect for our partners and we hope and demand that they do the same.”

The position of CSTO General Secretary has been vacant since November 2. Prior to that, it was occupied by the former chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Armenia, Yuri Khachaturov, who was prematurely recalled by Yerevan after being charged in the “March 1” case. At the summit held in Astana on November 8, the member countries of the organization did not come to a common statement regarding the new secretary general and decided to continue the discussions during the meeting to be held on December 6 in St. Petersburg.