
ArmInfo. Russian State Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin held a meeting with his colleagues-the heads of delegations from the CSTO Parliamentary Assembly member countries. Representatives from Armenia did not participate. The meeting took place ahead of the meeting of the Council of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO PA).
According to the press service of the Russian State Duma, the meeting with Volodin included Igor Sergeenko, Chairman of the House of Representatives of the National Assembly of Belarus; Yerlan Koshanov, Chairman of the Majilis of the Parliament of Kazakhstan; Marlen Mamataliev, Chairman of the Zhogorku Kenesh of Kyrgyzstan; and Faizali Idizoda, Chairman of the Majlisi Namoyandagon of the Majlisi Oli of Tajikistan.
The meeting discussed preparations for the upcoming meeting of the CSTO PA Council, which will be held in Moscow on April 20. The agenda included issues of harmonizing the legislation of the Organization's member states and countering challenges and threats in the CSTO's area of responsibility, as well as a draft statement by the Assembly Council on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of its founding.
As a reminder, Armenia has been boycotting CSTO events since the end of 2022. In February 2024, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan declared that Armenia had effectively frozen its participation in the CSTO, as the organization had failed to fulfill its obligations to Armenia, which would inevitably have consequences. And on September 18, 2024, at the Second World Armenian Summit, Pashinyan declared that the CSTO posed threats to Armenia's security, its continued existence, sovereignty, and statehood.