The government has okayed amendments to the Law on Defense and related legislation related laws on defense.
Under the new changes, the Deputy Defense Minister will be the Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces.
Referring to the bills, Nikol Pashinyan singled out two important key provisions. “The first is that the head of the General Staff becomes the first deputy minister of defense. Second, the entire procurement system is implemented by the Ministry of Defense. In other words, the General Staff is not engaged in procurement, the General Staff is engaged exclusively in its functions, I mean in the functions intended for the Armed Forces.”
The Minister of Defense Suren Papikyan said: “In fact, the Armed Forces should be engaged only in the work assigned to them: to protect the borders of the Republic of Armenia, to be engaged in combat readiness, i.e. anything aimed at improving the combat effectiveness of our army. Other tasks should be performed by other departments of the Ministry of Defense, mainly civilian. All possible tasks that can be delegated must be delegated. As a result, our Armed Forces will have more time to accomplish their mission.”
