Armenia will participate at the level of deputy prime minister in the September 29 meeting of the CIS Council of Heads of Government in Minsk. The announcement was made by Belarusian Deputy Foreign Minister Pavel Utyupin, who noted that most CIS member states will attend in person, represented by their prime ministers.
“We are expecting the heads of government of CIS countries. Almost all of them will be here physically, represented at the prime ministerial level. Armenia and Turkmenistan will participate at the level of deputy prime ministers,” Utyupin told a press conference, as reported by Sputnik Armenia.
The office of Armenian Deputy Prime Minister Mher Grigoryan confirmed that he will attend the meeting remotely, in an online format.
On September 30, Minsk will also host the next session of the Eurasian Intergovernmental Council.
Earlier, during a state visit to Azerbaijan, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko traveled with President Ilham Aliyev to occupied Shushi in Nagorno-Karabakh, where he made controversial remarks. He admitted that before 2020, he had discussed with Aliyev the prospect of resolving the conflict through war and the difficulties of post-war recovery. Lukashenko also declared that “Aliyev is now the leader of the South Caucasus” and should “control the region.”
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan later stated that at least two CSTO member states had been involved in preparations for the 44-day war against Armenia. He added that neither he nor any Armenian official would visit Belarus as long as Lukashenko remains in power.
