To what extent does the government's activities conform to the program approved by the NA, where it writes one thing and you do something completely different, or vice versa? How would you interpret this? Opposition MP Armen Rustamyan asked Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan about this during Friday’s discussions of the report on the progress and results of the 2023 implementation of the 2021-2026 program of the Armenian government at the Standing Committee on Foreign Relations of the National Assembly (NA).

Rustamyan noted that the aforesaid program states that Armenia will continue to be actively engaged in the CSTO activities, while the implementation states that Armenia has practically frozen its activities in the CSTO.

In response, Mirzoyan said a follows, in particular: "It is axiomatic for any average country that some things cannot be accomplished no matter how hard you try. Events have occurred that have made it impossible to do certain things.

Due to the circumstances, we did not participate in the CSTO as we presented in the NA in 2021. I already said why. There was an attack on Armenia, our borders were violated, we did not receive an adequate response from the CSTO. Even the acceptance of the public fact that, yes, the sovereign territory of Armenia was violated, even the acceptance of this fact did not happen [by the CSTO]. Under these conditions, any reasonable response would be to a) ensure that mutual understanding anyway, and b) if this is not possible, then at least not see these partners as they are written on paper. The opposite will be self-deception."