The Belarusian Ambassador to Armenia, Igor Nazaruk, was asked in an interview how he would comment on the fact that our country does not accept that Belarus, being a member of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), sells weapons to Azerbaijan, knowing fully well that those weapons will be used against us. He answered, “I’m not going to discuss the matter of selling weapons since I don’t have all the information. The selling of weapons is an issue which is being monitored by the UN Security Council and by international legal acts. If Belarus, as a member of those processes, has violated anything, please tell us what part of the agreement it was.”
He was reminded that Belarus and Armenia are members of the CSTO. The goals of the CSTO are peace, international and regional security, and strengthening stability. Therefore, it is a question of how much Belarus promotes regional security and strengthening stability through selling Azerbaijan weapons.
Igor Nazaruk said, “You are also a member of CSTO and you also have the possibility of doing certain things. I won’t tell you how and I won’t comment on that. Look at those questions from a balanced perspective. Tell us what principles we violated in the agreements and that we didn’t carry out our responsibilities. Then we can start constructive collaborations and not emotional ones.
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said that the CSTO as an organization can get better, and therefore the members of the organization need to adjust their responsibilities. Answering the question about his opinion on this, the Belarusian ambassador said, “Every organization has its levels of building, creating, and advancing. Of course, agreements and documents are not dogma. Collaboration changes, and that’s why we don’t say no, we instead offer to discuss the problems so we can adjust the situation.”
Nazaruk said that the CSTO agreement is a collective security agreement and its decisions are made based on a consensus. Whatever is not beneficial to Armenian colleagues will not be included in the documents, and that’s why they will work together to adjust responsibilities that are a result of new threats and new realities of certain situations.
Hripsime Jebejyan
