MOSCOW, 14 September (BelTA) – A Collective Security Treaty Organization mission led by CSTO Secretary General Stanislav Zas will travel to Armenia in order to evaluate the situation in the region. The decision was made at an extraordinary session of the CSTO Collective Security Council on 13 September, CSTO Press Secretary Vladimir Zainetdinov told BelTA.
The videoconference session of the CSTO Collective Security Council was convened upon Armenia's initiative. Participants of the session discussed the aggravation of the situation in certain areas at the Armenian-Azerbaijani border and ways to provide assistance with resolving the situation.
During the videoconference session an agreement was reached on sending a CSTO mission led by CSTO Secretary General Stanislav Zas to Armenia. Chief of the CSTO Joint Staff, Colonel-General Anatoly Sidorov and representatives of the CSTO member states will take part in it. The mission will be tasked with evaluating the situation and preparing a thorough report to be presented before the heads of state at a regular session of the CSTO Collective Security Council, which is supposed to take place in Yerevan, Armenia in autumn. The mission will also have to work out proposals on deescalating the tensions in the region.
Participants of the session also authorized the organization of a working group made up of personnel of the CSTO Secretariat and the CSTO Joint Staff for constantly monitoring the situation in the Collective Security Treaty Organization responsibility area.
During the session Armenia Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan informed those present about the situation in certain areas at the Armenia-Azerbaijan border where combat operations involving heavy weapons and unmanned aerial vehicles have happened since midnight on 13 September. A number of people have been killed and injured. Participants of the session offered condolences to Armenia.
Participants of the session expressed concern about the aggravated situation in the region and spoke in favor of addressing it purely through politics and diplomacy on the basis of universally recognized principles of international law and the trilateral statements made by the leaders of Azerbaijan, Armenia, and Russia on 9 November 2020. Russia's mediation efforts meant to stabilize the situation in the region were fully approved of.
State Secretary of the Security Council of Belarus Aleksandr Volfovich, Armenia Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, Kazakhstan President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, Kyrgyzstan President Sadyr Japarov, President of Russia Vladimir Putin, and Tajikistan Prime Minister Kokhir Rasulzoda took part in the session.
