Armenia refuses to participate in CSTO "nuclear exercises" in Belarus
Armenia will not participate in the upcoming "Skela 2023" exercise in Belarus under the auspices of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO).
According to Censor.NET, Russian media outlets cite the Armenian Interior Ministry as saying this concerning Evropeiska Pravda.
In September, the Ministry of Emergency Situations of Belarus will host a CSTO exercise on the elimination of an accident at a nuclear facility.
Yerevan refused to send its units to the republic. The reason for this decision was "the professional workload of the rescue service of the Ministry of Internal Affairs," the ministry said.
The CSTO is a military-political international organization that includes Belarus, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, and Tajikistan.
Relations between Armenia and the organization, which is effectively controlled by Russia, cooled significantly after the war over Nagorno-Karabakh in 2020, when the CSTO failed to provide any practical assistance to Yerevan. The same happened after several shellings of Armenian territory by Azerbaijan, allegedly.
Author - Serhii Kolomiets, 27/07/2023
