Russia says CSTO military cooperation with Armenia has effectively ended

(Horizon Media / YEREVAN) — Military and military-technical cooperation between Armenia and the Collective Security Treaty Organization has effectively ceased, although Russia continues to maintain bilateral defence ties with Yerevan, a senior Russian Foreign Ministry official said Tuesday.

Mikael Agasandyan, director of the Russian Foreign Ministry’s First Department for CIS Countries, told RIA Novosti that Armenia is no longer engaged in military, military-technical or other forms of cooperation through the CSTO framework.

Agasandyan said, however, that Russian-Armenian cooperation in the defence sector continues separately on a bilateral basis. Existing agreements between Moscow and Yerevan allow for military-purpose equipment to be supplied under preferential terms, despite the suspension of cooperation within the CSTO.

The remarks come as Armenia’s increasingly strained relationship with the Russian-led security alliance remains unresolved. Yerevan froze its participation in CSTO activities in 2024, with Armenian authorities citing the organization’s failure to fulfil its security commitments to Armenia during earlier confrontations with Azerbaijan.

The dispute has recently expanded to Armenia’s formal rights within the organization. Russia’s permanent representative to the CSTO, Viktor Vasilyev, has said that suspending Armenia’s voting rights would require consensus among the bloc’s member states. The matter could be raised when CSTO leaders meet in Moscow on November 11.

Armenia remains formally a CSTO member alongside Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, but its continued membership has become increasingly nominal as Yerevan distances itself from the organization.