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The member of the RA NA delegation to the OSCE PA Maria Karapetyan gave a speech at the second session of the OSCE PA Autumn Meeting being held in Yerevan, where the mechanisms of joint fight against corruption and the security threats were discussed.

“Thank you very much Madam Vice-President,

Dear colleagues,

It is such a pleasure to see you all in Armenia.

We have dedicated this session to the connection between corruption and threats to security. In this respect, of course, the biggest threat to peace and security is when weapons are sold to corrupt regimes because these corrupt regimes do not use these weapons for legitimate defense; these corrupt regimes use these weapons to defend their corrupt regimes.

Yet, I would like to shift the conversation in a positive key and to talk about how the fight against corruption is actually conducive to peace and security; similar to how our speakers have highlighted for us today.

A corruption free state and society goes hand in hand with democratic, transparent, accountable institutions, healthy institutions, that is to say, from the army to electoral institutions, from schools to ministries. And this means resilience. Resilience is an important defense shield in our modern societies especially in the era of hybrid wars that include not only conventional arms but also information technologies, ideologies, and what not.

So it is with this understanding that we in Armenia have coupled our aspirations for regional peace in the South Caucasus with a very strong domestic agenda for reforms, including the fight against corruption.

And let me highlight this by our budget discussions that are underway in the Parliament of Armenia like in many other Parliaments around the world in these autumn months. We compare the numbers for the 2024 budget to the numbers of 2018 budget. The reason for this being that 2018 was a turning point for Armenia’s democratization.

So, in 2024, the portion of revenue in the budget of Armenia will be more than the double of the portion of revenue in the 2018 budget. Capital expenditure for 2024 will be triple the capital expenditure for 2018. Our healthcare budget will be double the healthcare budget of 2018. Our education budget will be more than double the education budget of 2018.

How was it possible to double the revenue part of the budget, especially in just a few years? Thanks only to the relentless fight against corruption and a free economy. And we are sure that our path to peace internally and externally in our region lies through building a more resilient, a more democratic Armenia.

Thank you very much.,” the deputy noted.