Russian Deputy FM: Staying in the CSTO, first of all, meets the interests of Armenia

Staying in the CSTO and returning to full consultations and discussions within the framework of the organization meet, first of all, the interests of the Armenian people and the Armenian state, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Galuzin told the Izvestia newspaper.

“Objectively, in our opinion, there is no alternative to the CSTO mechanism in terms of ensuring Armenia’s security. Moreover, the CSTO member states have always been and remain open to providing assistance to Yerevan. In the past, Armenia was offered military and technical support as well as measures related to the training of specialized personnel and sending a CSTO monitoring mission to the Armenian-Azerbaijani border areas,” Galuzin said.

He added that, unfortunately, these ideas and proposals were not approved.

“We proceed on the premise that the future of the South Caucasus should be determined by the countries for which this region is a home. Neither the United States, nor France, nor the EU states are such countries. Therefore, we consider it counterproductive to drag non-regional forces, ‘Westerners’, into the region, which, unfortunately, official Yerevan has been inclined to do recently.

We see that there has been no stability and durable peace in any country or region where the US and its satellites from the European Union and NATO have interfered. There has been only destruction of statehood, chaos, and destabilization. There are plenty of examples: the Balkans, Iraq, Libya, Syria, and the Palestinian territories occupied by Israel,” Galuzin said.