Armenia military budget to dramatically increase in 2018September 28, 2017 - 12:51 AMT PanARMENIAN.Net - Finance minister Vardan Aramyan unveiled Armenia's draft budget for 2018 at a cabinet session on Thursday, September 28. According to the document, defense expenses will amount to AMD246․8 billion next year, up from this year's AMD209,8 billion. The expenditures will thus grow 17.6% in 2018 to amount to some $518 millionat current exchange rates. The country's military budget had risen from AMD 208 billion in 2016 to AMD209.8 billion in 2017. Top stories Yerevan has dismissed Turkey’s demand to shut down the Armenian nuclear power plant as “inappropriate”. Armenia will loan 2.9 billion drams to Nagorno Karabakh (Artsakh), according to a draft government decision. The Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources of Azerbaijan has “strongly condemned” Armenia’s decision. Kerobyan has said that for the first time in the history of Armenia, the volume of foreign direct investments amounted to about $1 billion. Partner news | Armenia to participate in key EU meeting for the first time ever National Assembly speaker Alen Simonyan has said that Armenia will for the first time participate in the Conference. U.S. reacts to Russia’s criticism of upcoming Armenia-EU-U.S. meeting Matthew Miller has weighed in on Russia’s criticism of an upcoming Armenia-EU-U.S. meeting. Lavrov sees ‘collapse’ of Russia’s ties with Armenia Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has underscored heightened tensions between Russia and Armenia. Russia clarifying reports on Baku’s alleged arms supply to Ukraine Russia says is carefully working to verify reports about alleged arms supplies from Azerbaijan to Ukraine |