Russia FM: Azerbaijan is included neither in EAEU nor in CSTO, I hope situation can be changed

No forms of cooperation can be frozen. Any organization which is capable to work actively is a living organism, which understands specifically what should be done at the given stage for more effective activity. This also fully relates to the CIS, Russian FM Sergey Lavrov said in an interview with TASS, responding to the question on what is Russia’s stance on the CIS development aspect.

“We see the reform not as a sheet of paper, on which it is written “Create new body, abolish the old one.” This is a very delicate adjustment,” he said.    

“It’s true that there are many structures in the post-soviet area. The Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) has emerged, the Collective Security Treaty Organization  (CSTO) works very effectively and actively. Many of our colleagues say: “Maybe we shouldn’t duplicate the economic cooperation in EurAsEC and CSTO? Why should we discuss the security issues in CIS when there is CSTO?” But the thing is that these advanced integration unions in the area of economics and security don’t include all CIS countries. For instance, Azerbaijan is included neither in EAEU nor in CSTO. I hope the situation can be changed,” Lavrov noted.