The funding of Armenia’s Foreign Office next year will remain unchanged, RA Deputy Minister of Finance Pavel Safaryan stated in Parliament, without citing particular figures.

NEWS.am’s attempts to receive more detailed information proved futile. Safaryan said that the approximate sum is 6bn AMD. Not only the financial experts of the RA Foreign Office, but also RA Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian found it difficult to report exact figures as well. The RA Foreign Minister referred journalists to Pavel Safaryan again.

So it turns out that both Minister Edward Nalbandian and other Government members are not at all interested in the budget of the RA Foreign Office. Safaryan pointed out that the Protocol Department of the RA Foreign Office will receive smaller funds next year than this year. 14bn AMD less will be directed to business trips, and 3bn AMD less to liaison. A total of 1.071bn AMD will be allocated as Armenia’s membership at international organizations, with 832m AMD for next year and 239m for the previous years.

A total of 4.006bn AMD will be allocated to Armenia’s diplomatic missions abroad – as much as this year. Safaryan pointed out that the revaluation of U.S dollar and Euro created some problems with diplomats’ salaries, which, in terms of USD and Euro, have decreased.

A total of 92m AMD are intended for cultural and religious events organized by the RA Foreign Office. Safaryan said that 20m AMD of them will be allocated to the Armenian Drama after Petros Adamyan in Tbilisi, 4m AMD for the pantheon of Armenian poets in Tbilisi, 10m AMD to the Armenian-language newspaper Georgia, 20m AMD for the preservation of Armenian cultural monuments abroad. Other expenses will reach 32m AMD.

Speaking in Parliament, Shirak Torosyan of the Republican Party of Armenia (RPA) pointed out the inadvisability of funding the Georgia newspaper — the advisor to the Georgian President, who encourages Georgia’s anti-Armenian policy in Javakhk (a Georgian region densely populated by Armenians) and hailed the court verdict on Vahagn Chakhalyan, has been appointed editor-in-chief of the newspaper.