Armenia has refused to pay its contribution to the budget of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), marking another step in its growing rift with the Russian-led military alliance.
The Armenian Foreign Ministry confirmed this week that Yerevan had formally notified the CSTO Secretariat of its decision not to fulfill the financial obligation for the previous year.
“Armenia refrains from signing the decision on the 2024 budget of the CSTO and, accordingly, from participating in the financing of the organization’s activities,” the ministry said in a statement. It also noted that details of the organization’s budget remained undisclosed under CSTO regulations.
Russia has downplayed the immediate impact of Armenia’s move, with its foreign office saying that while potential measures could be taken if the payment is not made by the end of 2025, Armenia’s expulsion from the CSTO remains unlikely.
The decision comes amid Armenia’s broader shift in foreign policy.
Last week, the Armenian parliament backed a motion supporting the country’s accession to the European Union, though Brussels has yet to extend a formal membership offer. The CSTO, a security bloc that includes Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan, has faced growing criticism from Yerevan over its response to regional security threats.
In early 2024, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan announced that the country had effectively frozen its CSTO membership, citing dissatisfaction with the bloc’s handling of security challenges. The tensions stem from the CSTO’s response to Azerbaijan’s 2023 military operation in Nagorno-Karabakh, which saw Baku reassert full control over the breakaway region. Pashinyan later described the alliance as a threat to Armenia’s national security, despite CSTO assurances of support.
Nagorno-Karabakh, internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan, had been under Armenian-backed control since the early 1990s. In 2020, Azerbaijan regained large parts of the territory following a six-week war. The 2023 operation led to the dissolution of the self-proclaimed Nagorno-Karabakh Republic, with around 120,000 ethnic Armenians fleeing the region, fearing persecution. Azerbaijan insisted that local residents could remain as Azerbaijani citizens, but the vast majority chose to leave.
