Armenia in row with Belarus over CSTO

Armenia's acting Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian will demand explanations from Belarusian President Aliaksandr Lukashenka in connection with the disclosure of classified information about the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO). On 12 November, Lukashenka told Azerbaijan's Ambassadsor in Minsk Latif Gandilov how the meeting of the CSTO Council went and how the appointment of the organization's new Secretary General was discussed. Azerbaijan is not a CSTO member, while the meeting of the Council was held behind the closed doors.

“It is roughly the same as if I invited a foreign ambassador of a country, which is not a member of CSTO, and told him about the meeting that was held behind the closed doors. I am surprised that the person who has been the head of state for 30 years could have allowed himself such a step. I must demand explanations from the Belarus president and not only him," News.am reports quoting Pashinian as saying.

Pashinian also has issues with the president of Kazakhstan who said that the next CSTO Secretary General would be a representative of Belarus. The Armenian leader stressed that decisions like this one are passed by consensus, and his country had clearly voiced its stance on this.

Armenian MFA also made a comment earlier about Lukashenka's improper behaviour.

Meeting with the Azerbaijani envoy, the head of Belarus said as follows: "Obviously, there were many options. It does not mean that we have hurt Armenia, that someone has won and someone has lost. The issue is that Nikol Pashinian needs to sort out the situation with the government, because this country today chairs the Eurasian Economic Union and the CSTO. It is a huge load on the country in the transition period. Will Armenia cope? When Nikol Pashinian sorts it out and replies to us, it will happen in St Petersburg.".

As of today, CSTO consists of Belarus, Kazakhstan, Armenia, Kyrgyzstan, Russia and Tadjikistan.

Belarusian MFA has already reacted to Nikola Pashinian's comments. MFA's official representative Anatol Glaz told TUT.BY that one had to follow the rules of diplomatic protocol not the rules of 'street democracy' in high politics.

“Armenia's activing Prime Minister seems to have imagined himself as an international prosecutor, empowered to punish or pardon," Anatol Glaz said.

The Belarusian MFA is convinced that such treatement may be acceptable in relation to former CSTO Secretary General and Armenian national Yuri Khachaturov but there are precise standards of protocol and ethics to to be followed in inter-state relations.