Armenia PM defends move to hike military budget

Armenia PM defends move to hike military budget
by AFP Staff Writers
Yerevan (AFP) Nov 16, 2023

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan on Thursday defended Yerevan's decision to increase military spending next year, saying he was still committed to normalisation talks with arch foe Azerbaijan.

Baku and Yerevan have been locked in a decades-long territorial conflict over Azerbaijan's Armenian-populated region of Nagorno-Karabakh, which Baku reclaimed in September in a lightning offensive.

Addressing lawmakers in Yerevan, Pashinyan said his government's planned increase in defence spending by some seven percent next year "isn't a preparation for war, but rather a preparation for peace."

"I am confident, our neighbouring countries know it well that we are not going to attack anyone," he said.

"Reforming armed forces is not only a right, but also an obligation of an independent country and that's what we are doing."

He also said that Yerevan's "political will to sign, in the coming months, a peace agreement with Azerbaijan remains unwavering."

Internationally mediated normalisation talks between the ex-Soviet republics have seen little progress but both Pashinyan and Azerbaijan's Ilham Aliyev pledged to sign a comprehensive peace agreement by the end of the year.

The pair have held several rounds of talks under EU mediation.

But last month, Aliyev refused to attend a round of negotiations with Pashinyan in Spain, over what he said was the "biased position" of one of the participants, France.

French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz had been scheduled to join EU-chief Charles Michel as mediators at those talks.

So far, there has been no visible progress in EU efforts to organise a fresh round of negotiations.

Russia, the traditional power-broker in the region, has been bogged down in its war in Ukraine and Europe has taken a lead role in mediating the decades-long dispute between Armenia and Azerbaijan.

Croatia approves new defence minister after predecessor sacked
Zagreb (AFP) Nov 16, 2023 - Croatian lawmakers on Thursday approved a new defence minister nearly a week after his predecessor was fired following a car crash that killed another driver.

Ivan Anusic of the ruling Croatian Democratic Union party (HDZ) received 77 votes from the 151-seat parliament, paving his way to overseeing the defence ministry.

On Saturday, Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic sacked Anusic's predecessor Mario Banozic just hours after he crashed a private car and suffered serious but not life-threatening injuries, according to doctors.

Police later filed criminal charges to prosecutors against the former minister for his role in the fatal traffic accident due to negligence.

The crash happened after Banozic was leaving the town of Vinkovci -- around 280 kilometres (174 miles) east of the capital Zagreb -- and overtook a truck that was driving in front of him, according to the police.

If convicted, Banozic faces up to eight years in prison.