YEREVAN. – With Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s decision, an interdepartmental commission on coordinating the development of the new National Security Strategy of Armenia has been set up, and the secretary of the Security Council (SC) has been instructed to submit—within a year—a draft of this strategy to the Security Council for debates, and subsequently, for its approval by the National Assembly.

In this connection, SC secretary Armen Grigoryan on Friday presented the main provisions of this new National Security Strategy, and explained why it was necessary to adopt a new one.

“Why have we decided to develop a new strategy?” he asked and responded himself. “The current [National Security] Strategy [of Armenia] has been adopted 12 years ago, after which fundamental changes have taken place in the world.”

In Grigoryan’s words, it is a key task to rule out the repetition of the events of April 2016—when Azerbaijan had unleashed a brief full-scale war. 

“Armenia has become an EAEU [Eurasian Economic Union]  member, as well as signed the Armenia-EU agreement,” he said. “The processes existing around the Artsakh [Nagorno-Karabakh] issue (...) continue to be the main challenges for Armenia. The Armenian-Turkish border continues to remain closed.

“The Republic of Armenia Armed Forces (...) will be the real pillar of the National Security Strategy.

“We see a need to expand the security concept that should also include the effectiveness of the system of governance and the development of strategic infrastructures.

“The security issues of Armenia, Artsakh, and the [Armenian] diaspora are interconnected, and that logic will be manifested in the new National Security Strategy.

“The development of the concept of resistance (...) is of key importance.

“We need to form a document that will be flexible, [and] will respond to the changes taking place in our country, region, and the world. This strategy is the roadmap for state building.”

The Security Council secretary recalled that PM Pashinyan recently quoted a Chinese military thought that, “Talented generals win without a war.”

“This is our strategic vision,” Armen Grigoryan stressed.