“As it appears, the conduct of these multinational doctrines in KSOR CSTO Armenia (the largest in the territory of the republic of all-time membership in the military-political organization) is a very good occasion to briefly review the dynamics of the CSTO and its impact on regional security of the South Caucasus.”-writes Sergey Minasyan, analyst at Caucasus Institute in his analysis of the CSTO military drills in Armenia.
“So far the Organization of the Contract on collective security passed rather long way of development. Note some features of its functioning. Activities in that region are mostly bilateral, in Armenian-Russian format. It is supported with the allied relations between Moscow and Yerevan, and with the existence of the 102nd Russian military base in the territory of Armenia. In view of this, the creation of three regional security subsystems (European, Caucasian and Central Asian) was one of the main directions of development of the CSTO.
However, in the South Caucasus, there are a number of challenges the CSTO is facing, such as a military-political organization, which claims to be the system of collective security. As we know, in the ongoing negotiations for a peaceful settlement, Azerbaijan permanently stands ready to solve the conflict by military means, concerning the NKR conflict. In its turn, Armenia also formally and publicly declared itself the guarantor of the security of the people of Nagorno-Karabakh. And it is automatically entail the need of CSTO to offer assistance to its ally – Armenia.
Of course, it is obvious that none of the CSTO member states are willing to be involved in an armed conflict in the South Caucasus. Armenia doesn’t want it too. But this requires the implementation of a number of measures to improve the functioning of the CSTO in the South Caucasus. This could include the improvement of the legal and policy framework of the mechanism or decisions on the use of force / tools for rapid and prompt response in the inertial mode. Political preventive measures are also important.
Naturally, the CSTO countries should also hold more responsible policies and count the interests of its allies in the military-technical cooperation with other countries in the South Caucasus. Ignoring the vital interests of its allies, especially in relations with the other countries of the South Caucasus, can move them to search for alternative formats to ensure their national security. Accordingly, the limiting factor will be the permanent demonstration of the CSTO member states its willingness to fully implement their treaty obligation.”
