YEREVAN, DECEMBER 21, ARMENPRESS. A meeting between Armenia’s caretaker Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Belarusian candidate for CSTO Secretary General Stanislav Zas is not planned, Pashinyan’s spokesperson Arman Yeghoyan told ARMENPRESS.

“A meeting with Nikol Pashinyan is not planned. If no meeting has taken place so far then there has not been a need for it,” he said.

Zas, the State Secretary of Security Council of Belarus, has expressed hope after meeting President Alexander Lukashenko that he will be installed as Secretary General of the CSTO, which Armenia is a member of, through consensus. He says that the leaders of Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Russia, members of CSTO, have approved his candidacy. He said he has visited the four countries and met with the presidents.

“The meetings passed in an positive atmosphere, productive and useful for me,” Zas has told reporters.

Zas said that during the meetings with the presidents he learned their vision of the situation in the region as well as the activities of the organization, according to Belta.

 “Not all formalities have been complied with. I think that we will deal with all the legal formalities in the next few days or early next year and I will begin work in the new post,” Stanislav Zas was quoted as saying by Belta.

Asked whether a meeting with the Armenian leadership is planned, Zas replied: “I am ready to meet with the prime minister of Armenia, the minister of foreign affairs, and the defense minister any time convenient for them to discuss issues and problems they see related with the organization and continue working taking into account these matters.”

Edited and translated by Stepan Kocharyan