CSTO Will Decide Whether to Lift Armenia’s Voting Rights

Foreign ministers of CSTO member-states met in New York in September

Russia has put forth a draft resolution to the heads of the Collective Security Treaty Organizations member states to strip Armenia of its voting rights in the Russia-led bloc, citing Yerevan’s outstanding membership fees owed to the group.

The announcement was made by Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov Tuesday while briefing journalists on the outcomes of a joint meeting of the CSTO’s Council of Foreign and Defense ministers, as well as secretaries of Security Councils, currently underway in Moscow.

“Beyond the constructive agenda items, we were also compelled to address the issue of Armenia’s failure to fulfill its obligations under the CSTO Charter, specifically regarding the payment of annual membership fees to our common organization’s budget,” Lavrov said, according to the TASS news agency.

“Since 2024—and indeed for over two years now—Yerevan has failed to pay its membership dues. Consequently, the question of invoking Article 25 of the CSTO Charter with regard to the Republic of Armenia has been raised. The draft decision in question proposes suspending the nomination of Armenian citizens to positions within the organization’s bodies and stripping Armenia of its voting rights until the obligation is fully met. This draft decision will also be discussed tomorrow during the session of the Collective Security Council,” Lavrov asserted, saying that there was no room for ambiguity.

At the same time, Lavrov said that Armenia has not submitted an official request to withdraw from the CSTO or the Eurasian Economic Union, adding that “the door to the CSTO is not closing” for Yerevan, and that “Armenia will not be expelled from the CSTO.”

“If arrears to the CSTO budget exceed a two-year period, then the country—in accordance with Article 25 of the CSTO Charter—must be stripped of its voting rights. However, we are not closing the door,” said the Russian Foreign Minister.

“It seems to me that when Nikol Pashinyan says, ‘I am, of course, moving toward the European Union; they are demanding a referendum from me so that the Armenian people can decide where it is better for them to be—in the Eurasian Economic Union or in the EU—and I will make that choice once I have officially submitted an application and received a response,’—that would no longer be a choice; rather, it would be presenting the people with a ‘fait accompli,’” Lavrov asserted.

According to him, a similar logic applies to the CSTO, with Yerevan stating that the organization no longer aligns with the country’s interests, as it fails to meet Armenia’s security needs.

“But if that is the case, then it means that one should withdraw. However, if they want us to expel Armenia, we will not do that,” Lavrov declared, adding that even though Armenia has been stripped of its voting rights, it “will retain the right to ensure its collective security within the framework of the CSTO.”

For the fourth consecutive year, Yerevan has been boycotting the activities of the military alliance. Following the Azerbaijani attack on Armenia in 2022—during which the CSTO not only failed to provide assistance to Armenia but also refrained from offering a political assessment of the occupation of Armenian territories—official Yerevan ceased its participation in the CSTO’s activities and relinquished its quota for the position of Deputy Secretary General. By February 2024, Armenia’s membership in the alliance was frozen, and Yerevan also stopped paying its membership dues.

Last week, in response to a statement by the CSTO Secretary General regarding a Russian proposal to suspend Armenia’s voting rights, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said that Yerevan’s “interest” in the CSTO has been “exhausted.” Months earlier, Pashinyan had also remarked that he would be quite pleased if the CSTO decided to expel Armenia from the organization.