Armenia has confirmed that it will participate in a BRICS summit this October and an informal Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) summit in Moscow next year, despite deteriorating ties with Russia.

Deputy Foreign Minister Mnatsakyan Safaryan confirmed that Armenia would be participating in the summits on Wednesday.

The Russia-led CIS summit will take place in Moscow next year, ahead of Russia’s World War II victory commemoration’s.

While Armenia is not a member of BRICS, Armenia was invited to its summit in Kazan in October as a member of the CIS. Russia is a major player in the intergovernmental bloc, which includes Brazil, India, China, and South Africa. 

Azerbaijan submitted an application to join BRICS in late August, just a day after Russian President Vladimir Putin visited Baku. Turkey also submitted an application to join the organisation earlier in September.

Armenia’s announcement that it was participating in the BRICS and CIS summits came after a phone conversation between Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Russian President Vladimir Putin, in which Putin reportedly gave Pashinyan ‘impressions’ of his visit to Baku.

Plummeting relations 

Tensions between Armenia and Russia have been at an all-time high, with Armenia boycotting most CIS and Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO) sessions since 2022.

Armenia accuses the Russia-led CSTO and Russia of failing to come to its defence against Azerbaijani incursions into Armenia in 2021 and 2022, despite the security bloc being treaty-bound to intervene when one of its members is under attack.

Armenia has since refused to host and take part in multiple CSTO drills and meetings, and even refused to send a representative to serve as the CSTO’s deputy secretary general. 

This June, Pashinyan also appeared to confirm that Armenia planned to leave the CSTO, though Armenian officials later attempted to play down the comments. This came months after Pashinyan announced Armenia had 'frozen' its membership in the bloc.

Russia has repeatedly criticised Armenia’s boycott of the CSTO’s sessions, most recently with Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova saying on Wednesday that Russia expected Armenia to resume its full participation in the CSTO ‘in the interests of the future security of Armenia itself, and indeed of the entire region’. 

On Thursday, Russia’s Ambassador to Armenia, Sergei Kopyrkin, said that his country never abandoned its role as an ‘honest mediator’ between Armenia and Azerbaijan, adding that Putin’s latest contacts with Pashinyan and Aliyev, ‘clearly confirm this’.

He also praised the CSTO’s role in Armenia’s security, adding that Armenia remains a member of the security bloc and that there was no ‘CSTO alternative as a mechanism for ensuring Armenia’s security today’.

He also criticised Armenian authorities for choosing to allow the European Union to dispatch a monitoring mission on its border with Azerbaijan in 2022 instead of agreeing to a CSTO observer mission.

Kopyrkin also echoed statements previously made by Russian officials accusing the EU Mission in Armenia of collecting intelligence against Russia, Azerbaijan, and Iran.