The delegation of the US Security Management Institute visited Armenia at the invitation of the Ministry of Internal Affairs to form a new agenda of cooperation between the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the US, which was received by Deputy Minister Arpine Sargsyan.

Jamal Khan, the head of the Defense Office of the US Embassy in Armenia, also participated in the meeting.

Thanks for the practical cooperation. Arpine Sargsyan presented the process of formation for the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

Referring to the 2023-2030 Disaster Risk Management Strategy approved by the government's decision, the Deputy Minister emphasized that a transition has been made from disaster risk reduction and response to emergencies to disaster risk management, which implies multidisciplinary work in the legislative and operational fields.

To increase resistance to disasters, he emphasized the clear division of functions and improvement of cooperation between the state administration system, territorial administration, and local self-government bodies.

Arpine Sargsyan referred to the mapping work in the field of disaster risk management, including the implementation of the seismic risk indexing process. This process will allow the implementation of seismic risk modeling of settlements, clearly presenting the worst scenarios in the event of an earthquake.

Thanking the guests for the warm reception, they referred to the 2019 and 2022 rounds of assessing the Republic of Armenia's disaster preparedness capabilities and presented the results.

They emphasized the meeting's importance, which is an excellent opportunity to evaluate multilateral efforts in the disaster resilience framework jointly.

The Republic of Armenia's preparedness in disaster risk management increased, and the US Security Management Institute's support and initiatives in capacity building were mentioned.

During the meeting, a number of questions regarding the vision of the Rescue Service's transformation, exchange of experience, and capacity development were also discussed.

The parties reaffirmed their readiness to strengthen the established close cooperation.