Russian-led bloc says no official notice from Yerevan on drill cancelation

January 11, BPN. The Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) says it has not received an official notice of refusal by Armenia to host Unbreakable Brotherhood 2023.

On January 10, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said he did not consider it expedient to host the CSTO’s drill.

The CSTO said the exercise was coordinated between defense ministers and security chiefs of its member states. “Yerevan had previously confirmed that the exercise should be held on Armenian soil this year,” it said in a statement.

But the CSTO acknowledged that the current situation in Armenia “may not allow [participants] . . . to carry out the planned peacekeeping exercises in full.”

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