Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan on Saturday, August 21 introduced Ararat Mirzoyan as Armenia's new Foreign Minister and said the country is facing serious security challenges. According to him, Armenia needs a Foreign Ministry and diplomatic service that will be able to take on and share political responsibility for the country's present and future.

"Ararat Mirzoyan and [Security Council chief] Armen Grigoryan are members of our political team, and I believe that especially in this period, the public administration system should work as one organism," Pashinyan told the Foreign Ministry staff.

"We are facing a pretty serious reform agenda in the public administration system in general. The most important goal of that agenda is to increase the efficiency of the public administration system, to establish a system capable of generating concrete results, determining specific goals and achieving them."

Mirzoyan too addressed his new staff, pledging reforms and modernization in order to overcome the challenges facing both the Ministry and the country.

Mirzoyan was appointed the Foreign Minister of Armenia on August 19. The post had been vacant since late May, when Ara Aivazian resigned from the position, in the aftermath of the 44-day war in Nagorno-Karabakh.