Armenia Proposes Keeping CSTO Secretary General Post - Ambassador To Russia

Armenia does not hide that it would like to retain the post of secretary general of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) and has already offered its new candidate for this post, Armenian Ambassador to Russia Vardan Toganyan told reporters on Saturday.

NOVOSIBIRSK (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 17th November, 2018) Armenia does not hide that it would like to retain the post of secretary general of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) and has already offered its new candidate for this post, Armenian Ambassador to Russia Vardan Toganyan told reporters on Saturday.

On November 2, Armenia prematurely recalled its representative at the post of the CSTO Secretary General, Yuri Khachaturov, and his deputy Valery Semerikov became the organization's acting head. At the same time, Yerevan insists it should retain the leadership until 2020.

"The heads of state have already agreed that they would decide on this on December 6 at an extraordinary summit ... Therefore, we will wait for December 6. Armenia, of course, proposed the candidacy, and we didn't hide it. We want to continue [holding the post of the CSTO secretary general]," the ambassador said without specifying the name of the candidate.

Toganyan has previously named three options for the appointment of the next CSTO secretary general, which can be taken by representatives of Armenia or Belarus, or continue to be led by its acting head, Russia's Valery Semerikov.

At the summit in Astana on November 8, it was decided that the representative of Belarus should become the next secretary general, "because under the charter, alphabetically, Belarus goes after Armenia," Kazakhstan's President Nursultan Nazarbayev said. Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko said on Monday that he had three possible candidates for the CSTO Secretary General. The final decision on the issue will be made on December 6 in St. Petersburg.