Imagine the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Trade

Member of Parliament Mamikon Aslanyan questioned the Minister of Justice, Surbhi Galayan, regarding the potential integration of trade into the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA), stating that this could increase their functionalities, but in the naming context, our MFA is still associated with some sort of trade association.

He emphasized that in all countries, Foreign Affairs ministries are among the titular ministries alongside Defense Ministries. Aslanyan pointed out that trade and the MFA do not align.

Surbhi Galayan noted in her speech that changing the name is not an end in itself. “These reflect our policies and priorities. Our goal is the development of the economy, which is impossible without promoting international trade. Therefore, the activities of the diplomatic corps must also aim at promoting international trade, which will lead to the growth of our economy; in other words, the thought is about economic development, and the way to achieve it is through the expansion of international trade,” said the minister.

Galayan added that it is hard to imagine what other structure could implement this functionality better than the MFA. “In the previous period, our diplomatic corps operated within the framework of conflict resolution. Now we are beyond the logic of conflict because peace has been established, and this gives us the opportunity to think about the stable development of our country, with our economic growth necessarily linked to the development of external trade,” said Galayan.

Mamikon Aslanyan remarked that following the same logic, embassies have military attaches, therefore the Ministry of Defense should also be integrated into the MFA, noting that there is a Deputy Prime Minister for this block and a ministry for the economic block; thus, coordinating efforts could solve external trade issues. “Just think of the name: the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade,” said Aslanyan.

Galayan stated that she disagrees with the idea that naming this ministry would belittle it.