Peace agenda among Armenian government`s priorities - Nikol Pashinyan 

ArmInfo. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan attended the event dedicated to the Diplomatic Service Employee's Day at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The Prime Minister thanked the MFA employees for their service and  congratulated them on the occasion of the Diplomat's Day, which is  the most important institution of the state. Nikol Pashinyan noted  that sometimes we lose sight of the obvious reality that diplomacy is  the most important tool for ensuring the country's external security  and that perhaps a state is successful to the extent that it is able,  first of all, to ensure its own external security and create a  favorable environment in the outside world through diplomacy.

"The mission of the diplomatic service is to create an increasingly  favorable position and situation for the interests of Armenia and the  Republic of Armenia in the outside world, so that what the Republic  of Armenia has to say is more understandable and acceptable for the  external world. But I must emphasize once again that in order to do  this, it is very important to thoroughly understand the external  environment in which we operate, because the content of what we have  to say and the success of what we have to say depend on this," the  Prime Minister said.

According to the Prime Minister, what and how we present, or how we  present and present ourselves as an independent state, should depend  on the perceptions and recognition of the external environment,  because different levels of that recognition can also change our  understanding of what we have to say and our positioning. "A very  simple thing. We must think of what we consider right and fair to  what extent is considered right and fair in the external environment,  because if we do not have this understanding, we will very often  encounter surprised looks and we will have surprised looks in mutual  feelings of not understanding simple realities and simple truths,"  noted Nikol Pashinyan, once again referring to the thesis he recently  voiced, according to which the modern world continues to remain a  largely unfamiliar place and environment for us. According to the  Prime Minister, if this does not seem so obvious at first glance  regarding the world, this thesis will be more understandable and  clear when we try to test it from the perspective of individual  countries, individual regions, individual relations, trying to look  from this perspective and understand how well we know the world,  individual countries of that world, individual relations of those  countries, etc.

According to the Prime Minister, in this regard, as much as the world  continues to remain an unfamiliar place for us, we continue to remain  an unfamiliar place, an unfamiliar state, an unfamiliar environment  for the world. "And we must admit this to each other, otherwise we  cannot make progress, and we must also seek and find certain  solutions. In this regard, of course, the strengthening and  continuous development of the capabilities of the Ministry of Foreign  Affairs and the diplomatic service is very important. Of course, in  terms of global scope, we may not have done much, but I am happy to  note that in recent years we have solved an issue of infrastructure  development. It may seem simple, but for example, we recently visited  the new building of the Armenian Embassy in Great Britain, which is a  physical infrastructure, a territory belonging to the Republic of  Armenia, but these nuances are also very important in diplomacy. When  I say they do not recognize us and we do not recognize them,  countries recognize each other and perhaps express their attitude in  some way including with such attributes.

It is also very important to create a certain comfort in relations  with the Republic of Armenia. I am pleased to note that we have a new  embassy building in France. Of course, we keep this issue in the  spotlight so that the physical infrastructure of our foreign  relations and diplomatic service is at the most appropriate level and  its continuous development is ensured," the Prime Minister noted,  adding that the Government is also trying to create a system of  material guarantees for diplomats.

According to Nikol Pashinyan, it is noticeable even to the naked eye  that the previous period has been a very active diplomatic year. "We  are establishing new relations that we did not have before, we are  developing and refining our previous relations, and this should be  viewed in the context of the balanced and balancing foreign policy.  The key goal for these balancings is to maintain the balanced state  of the Republic of Armenia. In other words, our task is to maintain  the interests of the Republic of Armenia in a balanced state through  the balance of foreign relations.

In terms of recognition, I must return to the thesis that we  proposed, and we must also be very precise in interpreting the  expression "serving the state interests of the Republic of Armenia."  The study and understanding of the modern world shows that by saying  state interests, one must first understand the economic development  of the country, because when you delve into the nuances of foreign  policy, the procedures, practices and mechanisms of international  relations, you understand that the economy and the development of the  economy are at the core of everything, because there cannot be such a  situation when economy is not in a normal state, is not in a state of  development, but the country and diplomacy are in a state of  development," the Prime Minister emphasized.

According to the Prime Minister, linguistic determinism is also of  significant importance, for example, one of the most used words in  international diplomacy is the word deal, which means transaction.  "We do not always and not everywhere view foreign relations with the  logic of a transaction; on the contrary, the word transaction has a  negative connotation or subtext for us, while the primary goal of  international relations is to conclude transactions in the literal  and figurative sense of the word. Literally, the result of  international relations is numerous, as many contracts as possible,  but on the other hand, there are also non-contractual transactions,  verbal agreements, gentleman's agreements, interstate agreements, and  in this regard, in order to actually assess the effectiveness of our  foreign policy and foreign affairs, we should try to have numerical  expressions here as well, for example, how many transactions we  concluded in the previous period, how many contracts we concluded,  how many documents we concluded, and what content they brought to  various spheres of the policy of the Republic of Armenia," Nikol  Pashinyan noted.

According to the Prime Minister, this is a very important approach,  we must be able to express the results of our activities everywhere  in numbers. Moreover, according to the Prime Minister, if it is  possible to express this in financial figures, it would be much  better, understanding that this is not always and not everywhere  possible, but on the other hand, experience also shows that  activities that cannot be expressed in numbers continue to remain  theoretical, not bringing very specific practical results.

Referring to the peace process, Nikol Pashinyan emphasized that the  peace agenda is one of the priorities of the Armenian Government.  "But on the other hand, we must also understand and we knew from the  very beginning that serving the peace agenda is not an easy task. I  think that our attitude should be as follows: If we have adopted it,  it means that it corresponds to the state interests of Armenia, and  therefore we must solve our task and do it precisely as a result of  the formulas I mentioned, through a better and deeper understanding  of the world, the region, relations, challenges, opportunities and  threats. I want to believe that we are going this way, I see that we  are going this way and it is very important that this path be  continuous, because in diplomacy, of course, flexibility is very  important, but it must also be in the right balance with  consistency," the Prime Minister said.

According to the Prime MInister, this flexibility should also become  more effective in better understanding the world, our environment,  the region, and relations, and in assessing the international  situation more promptly, comprehensively, and more deeply.  "Assessment of the situation is very important, because nothing  exists in isolation from a given moment, a given situation.  Everything that is being discussed today is first of all connected  with today's context. Of course, anything, including in foreign  relations, has a historical context, and also has a future context.  Here too, it is necessary that the right balances are formed, and the  right balance does not mean everything equally, because it depends on  where the fulcrum is, because that fulcrum is today, because in some  cases at that fulcrum there may be the right balance, the balance may  be maintained under the conditions of dominance of one of those  wings. I hope this idea did not sound too complicated, because any  balance depends on where the fulcrum is, and the fulcrum is today,  today's demands, today's conditions, today's threats and  necessities," the Prime Minister noted.

Concluding his speech, Nikol Pashinyan once again congratulated on  the occasion of the professional day and emphasized that the  diplomatic service in our country has been continuously developing  since the first day of its creation and is still developing today.  According to the Prime Minister, it is important to return to  reflection for this development. "We must be able to ask ourselves  questions, the more pleasant those questions are, the more useless  they are, the more unpleasant those questions are, the more useful  they are, because asking pleasant questions does not require great  courage or great effort, but I think that we must be able to ask  ourselves unpleasant questions, and we do it and we are right to do  so," the Prime Minister said and thanked the diplomats for their work  and unwavering dedication.

Next, the swearing-in ceremony of diplomats appointed to diplomatic  service positions took place, within the framework of which a number  of diplomats received diplomatic certificates from the Prime Minister  of the Republic of Armenia.

Minister of Foreign Affairs Ararat Mirzoyan awarded a group of  diplomats with the 2nd degree Medal of Honor of the Ministry of  Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Armenia.