The Armenian Foreign Ministry announced its refusal to sign the CSTO budget for 2024.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Armenia announced the republic's refusal to sign a document on the payment of annual contributions to the budget of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO). This was reported by Sputnik Armenia on March 31.

"The Armenian side has officially notified the CSTO secretariat that it is refraining from signing the decision on the CSTO Budget for 2024," the ministry said in a statement.

They also noted that Armenia, accordingly, refuses to participate in financing the organization's activities. The ministry also stressed that in accordance with the internal procedures of the CSTO, information on the annual budget is not subject to public dissemination.

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On March 25, Speaker of the Armenian Parliament Alen Simonyan announced that the country was not going to reconsider its position on the CSTO. He also denied reports that government agencies were strengthening cooperation with Russian partners on the instructions of Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan.

Relations between Armenia and the CSTO worsened in November 2022, when Pashinyan refused to sign the draft declaration of the CSTO Security Council "On joint measures to assist the Republic of Armenia" due to the lack of a clear, in his opinion, political assessment of the situation in Nagorno-Karabakh.

So, on September 18 last year, the Prime Minister of Armenia announced a threat to the country's sovereignty from the CSTO. During the government hour in parliament on December 4, Pashinyan stressed that the country considers itself outside the CSTO and no longer participates in decision-making in the organization. In turn, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev announced on December 18 that Armenia would withdraw from the CSTO when it received the go-ahead from Washington.