CSTO weighs charter action against Armenia over unpaid contributions

Member states of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) have agreed to consider applying a relevant provision of the organization’s charter to Armenia over its non-payment of membership fees for two years, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said.

TASS cited Lavrov as making the remarks following a CSTO foreign ministers’ meeting.

Armenia has not paid membership fees to the CSTO since freezing its participation in the bloc in 2024.

“On June 7 — on the very day of the elections in Armenia — my colleague Ararat Mirzoyan, referring to the CSTO issue, stated: ‘we are not paying membership fees because we are simply not participating’... what should be done in this situation? We discussed this today — Armenia’s more than two-year debt to the CSTO budget, a situation that is provided for by the CSTO charter. And today we agreed to consider activating the relevant article of the CSTO charter,” Lavrov said at a press briefing. 

Article 25 of the CSTO Charter outlines measures in cases where a member state fails to meet its financial obligations to the organization for two consecutive years.

It states that in such cases, the CSTO Council will suspend the right of citizens of that country to hold quota-based positions within the organization, as well as deprive them of voting rights in the organization’s bodies, until the debt is fully repaid.