Your trusted source

Analyst and expert on US foreign policy Suren Sargsyan has outlined a number of steps to make the activity of Armenia’s Foreign Ministry more effective.

“If we want the Foreign Ministry to work more efficiently, it should assume the following functions:

1. The Foreign Ministry should be the curator of Armenia's foreign policy; not only in connection with diplomacy, but also the whole foreign policy. Parliamentary, church, military diplomacy and others should be under its general supervision. This is a prerequisite.

2. Without agreeing a text with the Foreign Ministry, no lawmaker should deliver a speech at international platforms. Not a single head of department should discuss any issue with counterparts in Brussels or Moscow without general instructions from the ministry.

3. The Foreign Ministry should “push” the prime minister to work. It should always tell him to speak with this person or not to speak with that one, say this or not to say that. As a matter of fact, not all PMs understand foreign policy. That is why he should always be guided and his foreign policy work should be coordinated.

4. The foreign minister must be one of the most influential people in the country; a man of authority, preferably not a career diplomat – political heavyweight.

5. The Foreign Ministry should have a representative in every department to coordinate the sector of foreign relations.

6. Only the best ones should be appointed ambassadors regardless of whether they are diplomats or not.

7. Before leaving on a business trip, experts in the host country and the National Security Service (NSS) should work with the diplomats.

8. No one has such a commonality as the NSS and the Foreign Ministry. There is no alternative to their integrated cooperation. The list is really huge and endless,” he wrote on Facebook.