Foreign Minister of Armenia Ararat Mirzoyan will not take part in the meeting of the Council of Foreign Ministers of the CSTO member countries, which will be held in Almaty on June 21. Instead, he will visit Vilnius, where he is scheduled to meet with Lithuanian officials.

“Moscow hopes that Yerevan will come to an understanding that the CSTO platform provides every opportunity for cooperation on security issues,” Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Galuzin said after that. According to him, the most effective method of ensuring regional security is cooperation between regional states, and the Russian Federation expects that Armenia will understand this.

Galuzin also said that the West’s agenda in the South Caucasus does not always correspond to the interests of the countries in the region. This is how he commented on the strengthening of military cooperation between Paris and Yerevan. Western countries are entering the region with an openly confrontational anti-Russian agenda, he noted.

Previously, Armenia signed a contract with France for the purchase of CAESAR self-propelled guns, as well as a cooperation agreement with the Franco-German defense concern KNDS.

Recently, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan again criticized the CSTO and announced his withdrawal from the organization, without giving a time frame.