On July 17, in Minsk, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Armenia Edward Nalbandian participated in the session of the Council of Foreign Ministers of the Collective Security Treaty Organisation.

CSTO Secretary-General Yuri Khachaturov reported on the current activities of the organisation.

At the meeting in a narrow format the ministers discussed the process of implementation of the decisions adopted at the Yerevan Summit of the Collective Security Council in 2016, the priorities of the CSTO Belarus Chairmanship, exchanged views on the issues, which have an impact on global and regional security, the current situation in Central Asia and the South Caucasus, as well as the developments in the Middle East, and touched upon the efforts towards establishing stability in Afghanistan.

During the meeting the issues of foreign policy coordination of the CSTO member states were discussed, the development of military and military-technical cooperation, as well as the fight against terrorism and illicit drug trafficking were touched upon.

These issues were addressed by Minister of Foreign Affairs Edward Nalbandian in his remarks. Minister of Foreign Affairs of Armenia drew the attention of the heads of Foreign Ministries of the CSTO member states to the efforts of Armenia and the OSCE Minsk Group Co-chair countries towards the advancement of the process of settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, and the actions of Baku aimed to undermine them, such as preventing the implementation of the agreements reached at the summits of Vienna and Saint Petersburg and military provocations, which result in escalation of situation.

Edward Nalbandian presented to his colleagues the view of Armenia about the developments in Syria, the support programmes for refugees who found shelter in our country, and the details of provision of the Armenian humanitarian aid to the people of Syria. In this context Minister Nalbandian expressed gratitude to Russian Federation for the assistance in delivering the Armenian aid to Syria.

During the session views on cooperation between the CSTO and other international and regional organisations were exchanged.

The Ministers issued joint statements On the joint actions aimed at ensuring the information security and On the unacceptability of desecrating the memory of the liberator warriors of the World War II.