We are very dissatisfied with the CSTO. This was stated by the President of the National Assembly of the Republic of Armenia, Alen Simonyan, on 16 September, during an interview given to the Public Television Company.
“We are very dissatisfied; the expectations that existed are not being fulfilled. We will not be able to explain to our citizens for much longer why the CSTO is not doing what is stipulated. We are drawing consequences from this and are doing so. We are still waiting even now. Imagine, we have a gun that does not fire; we can at least strike with it,” said Alen Simonyan.
To the observation that this is also a direct relation with the Russian Federation, Alen Simonyan replied: “And we have a mutual assistance treaty with Russia. From our Russian partners as well, we expect much more tangible steps, not at the level of declarations or at the level of some fragmentary half-words. I express my disagreement that their public television company, for example, shows reports in which provocative statements are made against the leadership of Armenia. We honestly do not understand what kind of tactic that is.”
Referring to the upcoming visit to Armenia of the Speaker of the US House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, the President of the National Assembly said that she is coming at his invitation.
The President of the National Assembly noted that the Ambassador of the Republic of Armenia and the political group had done great work for the visit, then added that the visit is, nevertheless, a political decision.
“It is also an assessment of the degree of democracy that exists in Armenia. And I am grateful to Speaker Pelosi that she did not cancel her visit at this time, because I knew about the visit earlier. And let me say that her visit to the Republic of Armenia will play a very great role precisely in terms of security.”
To the question of what Armenia expects from Pelosi’s visit, Alen Simonyan said that Armenia expects the greatest possible security guarantees from all its partners. “Our biggest problem is security. In terms of the economy, we… it is obvious that the economy is growing, and if all this were not happening, we would move forward much faster. Today our number one problem is security, and all our contacts are primarily about that,” he said.
