10:14, 6 December 2023

YEREVAN, DECEMBER 6, ARMENPRESS. The U.S. continues to engage with Azerbaijan to urge them to seek a durable peace with Armenia, U.S. State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller has said.

Speaking at a press briefing, Miller said that Assistant Secretary of State James O’Brien’s upcoming trip to Azerbaijan doesn’t mean that the U.S. is backpedaling from its policy that, as O’Brien himself said earlier in November ‘nothing will be normal with Azerbaijan after the events of September 19 until we see progress on the peace track’.

“No, not at all,” Miller said when asked whether O’Brien’s trip is a departure from newly announced policy. “We never said that we’re not going to continue to engage with Azerbaijan. That would be against our interests as the United States of America. We think it would be against the interests of peace and security in the region for us to just drop all of our diplomatic engagements with Azerbaijan. We continue to engage directly with both Azerbaijan and Armenia to make clear – for example, in the case of Azerbaijan – where we have concerns. We’ve been concerned with the recent trend of detaining journalists. We continue to urge them to respect the human rights and fundamental freedoms of all, something that I’ve spoken to from this podium in the past. And we also continue to engage with them to urge them to seek a durable peace with Armenia, and that’s something that will continue to be the focus of our diplomatic engagements.”

Miller added that human rights is always on the table for the United States of America when they have these sorts of diplomatic engagements.

 10:44, 6 December 2023

YEREVAN, DECEMBER 6, ARMENPRESS. The Armenian government has envisaged 47,3 billion drams under the 2024 budget for assistance programs for the forcibly displaced persons of Nagorno-Karabakh, Finance Minister Vahe Hovhannisyan told lawmakers on November 6.

He said that this figure is just a part of the entire assistance.

The assistance includes support projects in education, employment, social protection, accommodation and other areas.

Authorities are currently discussing additional support measures.

The reserve fund of the 2024 budget is envisaged at an unprecedented level of 156 billion drams, the minister said at the 2024 budget debates. 

Speaking about international support for the NK refugees, the minister said that the EU, France and China have pledged to provide budgetary support funds, and upon receiving them the authorities will either reduce the projected deficit of the budget or plan additional urgent spendings.

 10:53, 6 December 2023

YEREVAN, DECEMBER 6, ARMENPRESS. The Armenian government has envisaged 554 billion drams for defense expenditures under the 2024 budget, finance minister Vahe Hovhannisyan has said.

“The Ministry of Defense expenditures in 2024 amount to 554 billion drams. This will be a seven percent increase compared to the 2023 defense spending, and as a result the 2024 defense spending will amount to 5,3% of GDP, decreasing by 0,3 percentage point compared to 2023,” he said in parliament during debates of the 2024 state budget.

Asked to elaborate on the decrease against the GDP, the minister said, ” When we say it has decreased 0,3 percent, it doesn’t mean that the money has decreased, it’s just that our revenues are growing faster than the expenditures that we have decided to allocate for the defense sector.”

 11:21, 6 December 2023

YEREVAN, DECEMBER 6, ARMENPRESS. The amended version of the 2024 state budget draft envisages 2 trillion 723 billion drams in revenues and 3 trillion 206 billion drams in expenditures, Finance Minister Vahe Hovhannisyan told lawmakers.

Revenues will amount to 24,9% of GDP.

Expenditures increased by 189,3 billion drams compared to the earlier version. 

Capital expenditures will amount to 695 billion drams (27% more compared to 2023).

42% of 2024 capital expenditures will be directed to the defense sector.

The deficit will amount to 483 billion drams (4,6% of GDP), however, the debt-to-GDP ratio will remain unchanged at 48,3%.

 12:09, 6 December 2023

YEREVAN, DECEMBER 6, ARMENPRESS. U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chair Senator Ben Cardin has called on the Biden Administration to hold Azerbaijan accountable for the ethnic cleansing of Nagorno-Karabakh’s indigenous Armenian population.

In a letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Cardin stated he is "deeply concerned that Azerbaijan could take further military action to achieve additional political gains, particularly in regards to the so-called Zangezour corridor."

The Senator called on Blinken to ‘continue to work with international partners and organizations to support accountability for the Aliyev regime’s actions.’

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chair also warned that Azerbaijan has been seizing and destroying Armenian cultural property in pursuit of its efforts to erase Armenian history and culture.

 13:13, 6 December 2023

YEREVAN, DECEMBER 6, ARMENPRESS. The government has so far approved 220 applications for the state-funded home construction program in border towns.

Gayane Gharagyozyan, an official from the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs, said at a press conference that the state works with banks to provide up to 16 million drams in loan for building a house in a border town. The entire amount is subsidized by the state and people signing up for the program don’t have to make any expenses.

Most of the applications come from Tavush and Syunik provinces.

The government expects that some of the forcibly displaced persons from Nagorno-Karabakh will also start applying for the program, Gharagyozyan, the Coordinating Advisor of Individual Functions of Structural Divisions at the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs said.

The program was introduced in 2022.

 14:47, 6 December 2023

YEREVAN, DECEMBER 6, ARMENPRESS. The U.S. wants to make sure that it can help those in need around the world, including ethnic Armenians, Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said.

“And then there are people in need around the world, throughout the world, whether it is ethnic Armenians, whether it’s Rohingya, whether it’s Sudanese – you name it, we want to make sure that America is there to help them,” Blinken said at the U.S. Global Leadership Coalition 2023 Tribute Celebration.

He made the remarks in the context of ongoing debates in the U.S. Congress around additional funding for Ukraine and Israel, as well as various humanitarian goals.

 14:55, 6 December 2023

YEREVAN, DECEMBER 6, ARMENPRESS. Chief of Staff of the Prime Minister’s Office Arayik Harutyunyan has met with Head of the Delegation of the European Union to Armenia, Ambassador Vassilis Maragos.

Harutyunyan thanked Ambassador Maragos for the efforts aimed at intensifying partnership and expressed hope that the mutual commitment to deepen Armenia-EU cooperation will contribute to the swift implementation of expected initiatives, Harutyunyan’s office said in a readout.

Speaking about the problems of the forcibly displaced persons of Nagorno-Karabakh, Harutyunyan attached importance to the EU’s continuous support for addressing the needs of the refugees.

Harutyunyan and Maragos exchanged ideas about the course and prospects of cooperation between Armenia and the EU, and discussed the regional developments, security developments and the course of the reforms undertaken by the Armenian government. In this context, the sides discussed strategic communication, the imperative of introducing and developing it as an institution and looked into the opportunities and mechanisms for studying and localizing the best experience of the EU.

Chief of Staff Arayik Harutyunyan presented the Crossroads of Peace project to Ambassador Maragos and said that the government of Armenia expects effective support from all international partners in implementing this important regional initiative.

An agreement was reached to jointly make efforts to make the current Armenia-EU partnership more effective.

 16:08, 6 December 2023

YEREVAN, DECEMBER 6, ARMENPRESS. Armenia’s absence at the CSTO PA meeting won’t impact the decision on creating a unified air defense system, the Russian foreign ministry has claimed.

“Their physical absence doesn’t overall hinder the process of agreeing adoption of collective documents, which in many cases they join,” Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Pankin told reporters when asked whether Armenia’s refusal to take part in the CSTO PA session will have any impact on the plans to create a unified air defense system.

The 16^th plenary session of the CSTO PA Council will take place on December 19 in Moscow.

The Armenian delegation  in the session.

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 16:46, 6 December 2023

YEREVAN, DECEMBER 6, ARMENPRESS. Russia welcomes the meeting of the border delimitation commissions of Armenia and Azerbaijan and is ready to support the process, Russian Foreign Ministry representative Maria Zakharova has said.

“We welcome the meeting of the representatives of Azerbaijan and Armenia on the border,” Zakharova said at a press briefing.

“We are ready to provide any kind of support during the delimitation process,” she added.