Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan stated that Russia is no longer the country’s strategic partner (Photo: Sputnik/Alexander Miridonov/Pool via REUTERS)
There are now grounds not to regard Russia as Armenia’s strategic partner, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said during a press briefing in Yerevan on Aug. 27, pointing to Moscow’s and the CSTO’s failure to meet security obligations during Azerbaijan’s September 2022 offensive near the Armenian town of Jermuk, according to ARKA.
“After the events of September 2022, to say there is a strategic partnership… If we now write ‘strategic partnership’ in the Armenian government’s 2026-2031 program, you will ask why Russia and the CSTO did not fulfill their security obligations in September 2022,” Pashinyan said.
Armenia’s 2026-2031 government program says that “dialogue aimed at mutually beneficial multi-sector cooperation with the Russian Federation will continue in the direction of transforming relations under the new conditions of peace in the region, a balanced foreign policy, and the development and deepening of relations.”
Earlier, while presenting the program in parliament, Pashinyan said the transformation of Armenia’s relations with Russia is “a natural process, since peace has been established between Yerevan and Baku.”
Pashinyan also said on Aug. 24 in parliament that Armenia does not plan to return to active work in the Collective Security Treaty Organization, or CSTO, over the next five years and would welcome being expelled from the bloc.
“I can say with confidence — we are not going to intensify our work in the CSTO,” local media quoted him as saying.
According to Pashinyan, relevant discussions are already taking place inside the alliance, and the organization’s charter allows for the expulsion of a member state.
“I would be very glad if the organization decides to expel the Republic of Armenia. In any case, it would free us from the dilemma of whether to leave or not leave it,” he said.
Yerevan froze its participation in the CSTO in February 2024 and formally stopped funding the organization in May of that year after it failed to intervene in the conflict with Azerbaijan over Nagorno-Karabakh. Pashinyan had previously called the CSTO a “bubble alliance” and accused some of its members of effectively supporting Baku.
In his latest remarks, Pashinyan also commented on Russia’s demand that Armenia hold a referendum on whether it wants to remain in the Eurasian Economic Union or join the European Union.
“Armenia first of all has to submit an official application to join the EU. That is also a process requiring extensive work, and probably in the near future we will begin this process,” he said.
He did not give a timeline for filing the application. At the same time, he did not reject the idea of a referendum outright, saying one could be held after Armenia receives a response to an official appeal to the EU and after a “road map” for the process appears.
In 2024, amid deteriorating relations with Russia, Armenia froze its participation in the CSTO and later said it would soon leave the organization. On June 10, 2026, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said CSTO countries had agreed to consider applying a charter article to Armenia because it had not paid contributions for two years — a move that could lead to the loss of its voting rights or expulsion.
On June 8, 2026, Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan said Armenia had not paid its 2025 contribution to the CSTO because it had not been participating in the organization’s activities. On June 11, Pashinyan answered Lavrov’s criticism by saying that if a decision were made to expel Armenia from the CSTO, Yerevan would take note of it.
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