Armenia is to establish three new embassies — specifically, in Mexico,
Indonesia, and Vietnam — in the coming year, First Deputy Minister of
Finance Pavel Safaryan announced on Monday during budget discussions
at the National Assembly.
A total of AMD 7.6 billion will be spent in 2012 to operate Armenia’s
embassies and diplomatic missions, and this amount exceeds that of the
past year by AMD 915 million. To note, in line with the current
exchange rate, US $1 is equivalent to approximately AMD 406.
In his turn, Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian said they will attempt to open an
embassy in Sweden, too, and that the corresponding decision was adopted
one year ago. In his words, the consular reforms will continue and
online consular services will be launched.
Pavel Safaryan added that some foreign affairs-related functions have
been removed from the MFA’s duties and given to other departments. As a case
in point, from now on Armenia’s military attachés will be financed
from the MOD budget, while the country’s commercial representations will be financed
from that of the Economy Ministry.
