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Presidential press office spread official statement Thursday evening that informal summit of CSTO leaders is due in Yerevan August 20-22. Panorama.am talked to Vahram Ter-Matevosyan, the head of the Armenian Defense Ministry INSR analytical center, over the issues to be raised at the summit and the expectations Armenia has from it.

“Following the latest CSTO formal summit, held in Moscow May 8 this year, some changes have been observed in terms of regional security issues. Consequently, the agreements reached at the summit in Yerevan will predetermine the CSTO policy priorities by the yearend,” he said.

According to the expert, during the recent years deep institutionalization and efficiency boosting procedures are underway in the CSTO, directed to the increase of the role of this influential defense-political organization.

“Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan and the other CSTO leaders have many times stressed that CSTO plays most significant role in ensuring stability. It had been highlighted at a meeting of similar format lately that such meetings provide opportunity to clarify the tendencies of the regional security in bilateral and multi-faceted formats, to find new formulas for facing the challenges and threats. Besides the issues on increasing the efficiency of the organization, support to Kyrgyzstan over ensuring stability in the country, continual improvement of the CSTO crisis response system mechanisms and the information field, anti-drug combat, working out the second package of the Rapid Reaction Collective Forces documents will be on agenda,” V. Ter-Matevosyan said.

As regards the expectations from the summit, the expert said: “Since the establishment of the CSTO, Armenia has always supported the activity of the organization, having clear expectations to ensure the RA national security. This summit is not going to be an exception. In 2009, when Armenia was chairing the CSTO, Rapid Reaction Collective Forces were established to even more increase the role of the organization. Due to the multi-level support rendered to the CSTO by the Armenian authorities, the organization views Armenia as one of the CSTO strong links. Armenia is interested in improving the CSTO current mechanisms and the normative-legal base, as well as increasing the efficiency of the working links of the CSTO system. Hence, hosting the summit and drawing the attention of the CSTO leaders to these issues is among Armenia’s interests.”