Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan explained that Armenia now has access to the global defense arms market largely because it declared mutual recognition of territorial integrity with Azerbaijan and suspended its participation in the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO).
“When we recognized each other’s territorial integrity with Azerbaijan, the global arms market opened to us because we stated that the weapons would not be used beyond our sovereign territory,” Pashinyan said, as quoted by Aysor.am .
He added that other key factors also played a role.
“I won’t hide the fact that our CSTO membership was a serious obstacle to accessing international markets,” the Prime Minister stated.
In 2022, the situation was vastly different, he said. Even when Armenia made payments, including a $100 million payment for weapons and equipment, the supplies were not delivered.
“Sometimes politely, sometimes not, they simply refused to deliver,” he said, noting that Armenia has since shifted to internationally recognized approaches and frameworks.
Pashinyan emphasized that freezing Armenia’s CSTO membership was the logical outcome of this shift.
“We froze our membership in the CSTO,” he stated.
In recent years, the Prime Minister and other top Armenian officials have not participated in CSTO meetings. In February 2024, Armenia announced it was freezing its membership in the alliance and later refused to pay its membership dues.
