Yerevan /Mediamax/. Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said that the government he leads relies more on “soft factors” than on the army in ensuring security.

This was reflected in his speech delivered on March 2 at an event dedicated to the Day of the Diplomatic Service Employee.

The government’s news release states:

“According to Nikol Pashinyan, greater attention should be paid to the role of diplomacy and the diplomatic service in ensuring the country’s security and normal development, as security is often equated primarily with the army. ‘But later we realized that the more we associate security with the army, the more it suggests a lack of security or an unfavorable security environment. Conversely, the more we refer to soft factors when we speak about security, as is commonly said, the more it indicates a more reliable level of security.’

In his speech, Nikol Pashinyan noted that understanding the world, processes, ongoing changes, and the cause-and-effect relationships between events enables the country to make its environment more predictable and manageable.

‘We must also not forget the most important goal of our diplomatic activity: to ensure the economic development of our country. That is also a challenge. When we are overly focused on security, which is, of course, a vital necessity, the more acute our sense of tension and need for security becomes, the more it means we are moving away from the logic of economic development,’ the Prime Minister said.”