Pashinyan: Armenia should increase military spending

YEREVAN, May 1. /ARKA/. Armenia should increase its spending on defense, Nikol Pashinyan, candidate for prime minister, said today at an extraordinary session of the Armenian National Assembly. 

In 2018, Armenia has increased defense expenses by AMD 34 billion, compared with the previous year, to AMD 246 billion or 1.5% of GDP.  

“Our military expenses should be adequate to things in the region,” Pashinyan said. “I think there is the necessity of increasing military spending, and we will do this. I am sure that we will be able to do this by increasing the country’s budget revenue.”

He also said that the spending increase is necessary to ensure military balance in the region, which was upset in recent years.  

Nikol Pashinyan, was nominated yesterday by YELQ faction as prime-ministerial candidate. He is the only candidate for this position. 

Earlier, the factions of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation/Dashnaktsutiun and Tsarukyan bloc issued statements pledging their support to Nikol Pashinyan. 

Eduard Sharmazanov, a member of the board of the Republican Party of Armenia and the vice speaker of the parliament, that the party’s faction will make its decision only after it hear Pashinyan’s program.  

On April 23, Serzh Sargsyan, who was appointed by the Armenian parliament as prime minister amid widespread disaffection for him, resigned under the pressure of mass protests against his premiership. 

On the same day, Armen Sarkissian, Armenian president accepted the government’s resignation. --0----

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16:41 05/01/2018