Armenia refuses to host CSTO drill in 2023

January 10, BPN. Armenia considers it inexpedient to host a Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) drill this year, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has told reporters in Yerevan.

“The Armenian defense minister [Suren Papikyan] has already informed the CSTO Joint Staff that in the current situation we consider it inexpedient to hold CSTO exercises, and that they will not take place this year,” Armenian website News.am quoted Pashinyan as saying.

On January 1, the Russian defense ministry said units of the Russian Ground Forces will participate in the CSTO peacekeeping contingents’ joint command and staff exercise Unbreakable Brotherhood 2023 in Armenia.

Last October, Kyrgyzstan’s Ministry of Defense cancelled the Unbreakable Brotherhood 2022 exercise. It was supposed to be held on October 10-14 at the Kyrgyz Armed Forces’ Edelweiss combat training center in Balykchy.

The CSTO is a military alliance comprising Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia and Tajikistan.