The actions of some member-states are undermining the trust in the National Security Council. MFA

The new government of Armenia is committed to fully use the potential of the SPC for the promotion of regional economic and trade cooperation and the effective implementation of the statutory goals of our organization. RA Foreign Minister Zohrab Mnatsakanyan announced this at the 38th Yerevan meeting of the Council of Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the CSTO member states. 

“These goals were also the basis of our presidency. In the past six months, we have held two meetings of the Committee of Senior Officials, 14 meetings of working groups and two ministerial meetings on Education and Tourism. Finally, after almost 6 years of discussions, the Green Energy Strategy was adopted. The Steering Committee for the Development of Black Sea Projects accepted the project on Information and Communication Technologies and Small and Medium Enterprises proposed by Armenia.

Being the coordinating country of the CSTO Information and Communication Technologies Working Group and having significant capabilities in the field of information and communication technologies and programming, Armenia consistently encourages targeted cooperation among member states in this field. 2019 Armenia will host the World Congress of Information Technologies. We invite CSTO Member States to take advantage of this opportunity to share and mutually benefit from our collective experience and further expand strong regional cooperation in this field.

The sustainable development of tourism has significant potential for cooperation in the CIS region. Armenia has initiated the project “Wine tourism on the Silk Road” and is pursuing its implementation also within the framework of cooperation between the World Tourism Organization and the World Tourism Organization. The project already enjoys the support of some member states of the CSTO. We invite others to join as well.

Within the framework of the entrepreneurial dimension of cooperation, Armenia emphasizes the strongest involvement within the framework of the economic community of the SPC, promotion and support of small and medium-sized enterprises in business relations.

We also believe that in 2012 the economic agenda needs to be revised and adapted to current global economic trends. In this regard, the institutional potential of the National Institute of Social Sciences and Humanities needs a realistic evaluation. As an international organization, the SPC is not the only one undergoing reforms. We all need a more effective and efficient organization. However, the reform process does not mean rewriting the main goals of the Organization. We believe that in order to enhance the effectiveness of the CSIRO, we must take practical and realistic measures to achieve the strategies set out in the last summit declaration and provide tangible benefits to the CSIRO community as such.

Continuous attempts by some member states to abuse and politicize the platform of the CSTO have a negative impact not only on multilateral economic cooperation in the region, but also on the key foundations of the Organization. Such attempts undermine the trust in the SSC as an effective regional economic organization. We must resolutely prevent such dangerous trends, including within the framework of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Parliamentary Assembly, which should support the implementation of the key goals of the organization, instead of engaging in parallel activities independent of the rest of the structures of the Parliamentary Assembly. In addition, open borders, depoliticized, unfettered, free and comprehensive regional cooperation, as the key goals of this organization, are also important conditions for promoting stability and peace in the region,” said the Foreign Minister.

According to him, the economic cooperation within the framework of the CSDP will benefit more from the interaction with other regional organizations and integration platforms. He emphasized that Armenia is a member of the Eurasian Economic Union, which provides free customs access to a market with more than 180 million consumers. Armenia also has strong and expanding cooperative relations with the European Union, the legal basis of which is the Comprehensive and Enhanced Partnership Agreement. And in October of this year, Armenia will host the 17th summit of the International Organization of Francophonie.