Belarus "betrays" Armenia by supplying arms to Azerbaijan – Politico

Belarus has been supplying modern weapons to Armenia's adversary Azerbaijan, although Minsk and Yerevan are allies and are members of the CSTO security alliance under the auspices of Russia. 

As reported by Politico, documents, showing the supply of weapons, shed new light on Armenia's announcement this week that it would withdraw from the CSTO military alliance.

The package of more than a dozen letters, diplomatic notes, invoices and export passports shows that Belarus actively assisted the Azerbaijani armed forces between 2018 and 2022 when Azerbaijan’s tensions with Armenia reached a peak. 

The services offered to Baku included modernising old artillery equipment and providing new military equipment for electronic warfare and unmanned systems.

The documents include letters from the Belarusian state arms export agency to its own military-industrial firms regarding orders for Azerbaijan for state-of-the-art artillery targeting equipment, as well as correspondence between the two states on the purchase of Groza-S mobile anti-drone systems for the Azerbaijani armed forces. 

One of the diplomatic notes seen by Politico states that Belarusian companies play a significant role "in the restoration of de-occupied territories of Azerbaijan, as well as the export of Belarusian goods and services" to the country.

In September 2022, Azerbaijani troops started an invasion of Armenia, occupying key strategic heights. Armenia then turned to the CSTO for support, but later accused the bloc of not fulfilling its obligations after it offered only to send a delegation to establish the facts.

Although Alexander Lukashenko is, on paper, an ally of Armenia, he has previously referred to Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev as "our man" and said that it would be "wrong" for the CSTO to oppose him. 

Aliyev, for his part, said in 2022 that "we have more friends in the CSTO than Armenia does."

Experts noted that Belarus, one of Moscow's closest allies, would hardly act without the Kremlin's discreet support.

On 12 June, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan announced that his country would withdraw from the CSTO, claiming that its members "do not fulfil their treaty obligations, but plan a war against us and Azerbaijan."

On 13 June, Pashinyan said that neither he nor any other Armenian official would ever visit Belarus as long as Lukashenko is the country's leader.

On 13 June, Belarus summoned the Armenian ambassador for a meeting at the Foreign Ministry after Pashinyan made his accusations public the day before. The ambassador was later recalled to Yerevan, and the Belarusian ambassador returned to Minsk.