DM Monitoring
Yerevan: Armenia will not host Russian-led military exercises this year, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said Tuesday, signalling growing frustration with Moscow.
Pashinyan’s announcement comes after the leader of the ex-Soviet republic criticised the work of Russian peace-keepers in the South Caucasus, which has been plagued for decades by fighting between Armenia and neighbouring Azerbaijan.
Speaking to reporters, Pashinyan said he saw no reason for the Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO) to stage military drills in Armenia this year.
“These exercises will not take place,” he told reporters, adding that: “Armenia does not believe it is expedient to con-duct CSTO exercises in the republic this year”.
Pashinyan noted the organisation had refused to condemn Azerbaijan, which fought a six-week war with Armenia for control of the majority-Armenian region of Nagorno-Karabakh in 2020.
The conflict claimed more than 6,500 lives and ended with a Russian-brokered truce that saw Yerevan cede territories it had controlled for decades and Moscow send peacekeepers to Karabakh.
Despite the end of the large-scale fighting, tensions over their borders persist.
