Armenia’s membership in the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) has been frozen, but the country has not officially withdrawn and its legal status remains unchanged, former Defense Minister Davit Tonoyan said, commenting on Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s claim that the CSTO hindered arms purchases from other countries.

“I am asking a rhetorical question — have we left the CSTO that acquisitions are now being made?” he said in a conversation with journalists before the start of a court hearing, Panorama.am reports.

Tonoyan noted that the issue was more related to the Artsakh conflict.

“We are a CSTO member, and as I see it, this does not prevent [procurement]… It was more a problem connected with the Artsakh conflict. France and the U.S., for example, were co-chairs of the Minsk Group at the time and were not allowed to supply either Armenia or Azerbaijan. That was the main issue,” Tonoyan said.

Earlier, Pashinyan had stated: “It turned out that in many cases there was no need for us to knock on doors. The entire global defense market opened up to the Republic of Armenia. I do not want to conceal that there is a nuance there related to the CSTO. Our participation in the CSTO was a serious obstacle to having access to the international market.”