Pashinian, Putin Discuss Upcoming CSTO Summit In Armenia

Russian President Vladimir Putin (left) welcomes Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian in Sochi on October 31.

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian and Russian President Vladimir Putin have discussed an upcoming summit of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) in a phone call reported by the Armenian leader's press office on November 9.

The summit of the CSTO, a Russian-led security grouping of six former Soviet states that also includes Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan, is due to be held in Yerevan on November 23.

According to Pashinian's press office, the two leaders also discussed the agenda of Putin's visit to Armenia on November 22.
A Kremlin report on the phone call, however, did not mention the visit.

The Armenian readout of the phone call added that Pashinian and Putin also exchanged views on a number of events that have taken place since Putin hosted talks in Sochi on October 31 between Pashinian and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and on the implementation of the agreements reached on humanitarian issues.

The October 31 meeting focused on the settlement of Armenian-Azerbaijani relations and the future of Nagorno-Karabakh, a region over which Yerevan and Baku fought in the autumn of 2020 and where Moscow deployed its peacekeepers after brokering a cease-fire to put an end to six weeks of fighting.

The Sochi talks were followed by more Armenian-Azerbaijani diplomatic engagement -- first at the level of deputy prime minister in Brussels on November 3 to discuss border delimitation issues and then at the level of foreign minister in Washington on November 7, a meeting hosted by U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova commented on the Washington meeting between Ararat Mirzoyan and Ceyhun Bayramov, stressing that the discussions during the U.S.-hosted talks were conducted "with the results of the Sochi summit being taken into consideration."

"I have not seen anywhere that the parties refused to refer to the reached agreements," Zakharova said during a press briefing on November 9.

"Let me remind you that in a joint statement, the heads of state stressed the importance of preparing a peace treaty between Baku and Yerevan in order to achieve sustainable and lasting peace in the region," Zakharova said.