Armenia Can't Match Azerbaijan's Military Budget: Deputy Defense Minister

The Deputy Minister of Defense of the Republic of Armenia, Hrachya Sargsyan, in response to journalists' questions, noted that he is not aware if the amount allocated to the Ministry of Defense will decrease in 2026.

"Whatever we have approved and planned in the medium-term programs, we are implementing, and we will implement those same expenses.

The budget will be approved in the National Assembly in December, I think when it is approved then, it will be clearer, but the approach is that whatever we have approved in the medium-term expenditure program, the same amount will be next year," Sargsyan noted.

To the journalists' reminder that Azerbaijan is intensively arming itself, while Armenia is not increasing its defense spending, Sargsyan said that Azerbaijan's military budget has been several times larger than the state budget of the Republic of Armenia for the last 30 years.

"If your question is framed in such a way that we should increase our entire state budget to reach Azerbaijan's military budget, it is not going to happen," the Deputy Minister of Defense countered the journalist's observation.