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.