Armenia began the process of ratifying the Rome Statute in December last year, when it became obvious to everyone that the CSTO and the mechanisms of Armenian-Russian strategic cooperation were not sufficient to ensure its external security. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan announced this in his message.

If the Rome Statute is ratified, Armenia will become the second country in the South Caucasus where Russian President Putin will have to be arrested upon his entry. Georgia was the first to recognize the jurisdiction of the ICC.

Pashinyan also noted that repeated acts of aggression by Azerbaijan and the closure of the Lachin corridor raise questions, including in the context of the activities and motives of Russian peacekeepers in Nagorno-Karabakh. “Armenia has never betrayed its allies. But an analysis of all the events shows that those security systems and those allies on whom we have been counting for many years have set the goal of showing our weaknesses and the impossibility of the existence of an independent Armenian state,” the prime minister concluded.