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Yerevan, March 11. “Dear colleagues, in 2015 the Republic of Armenia assumed the CSTO Chairmanship and the main priorities of Armenia were presented by the RA President, among which the strategy of the CSTO collective security until 2025 and its adoption in 2015, as well as the necessity of unitedly facing the external threats and cooperation at different international platforms were noted as prior directions.

I greatly highlight that the CSTO member states and their parliamentary delegations always show balanced position on international platforms and will not make statements, which stem not only from the common interests of the CSTO member separate states, but also the CSTO in general.

Unfortunately, sometimes we come across cases, when some CSTO member states not only defend their allies on international platforms, but often display such a position, which contradicts the CSTO official position. This is inadmissible, and we should do our best for excluding similar negative phenomena in the future.

I would like to also touch upon manifestations of terrorism, racism and xenophobia. I believe that this is a challenge directed not only to the CSTO, but also to the whole mankind. I call on to say our resolute “no” to similar negative phenomena without exception. Let me note that after the previous sitting of the CSTO Parliamentary Assembly up to now the situation on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border remains concerning. We permanently made statements and continued doing it for the benefit of all problems, exclusively for the peaceful settlement of the NK conflict in the OSCE Minsk Group format – based on three well-known principles. Military rhetoric, use of force or threat of force should not only be inadmissible, but also condemned by everybody. Calling a spade a spade is of vital importance for our organization. We would succeed to prevent the repetition of such threats only in that case.”