While Azerbaijan is increasing its defense and security budget,  Armenia is reducing it - expert

ArmInfo. Tatevik Hayrapetyan, expert on Azerbaijani studies, has presented  Azerbaijan's defense and security expenditures over the past three  years.

As the expert stated on her Telegram page,  in 2024, former Finance  Minister Samir Sharifov announced in the Milli Majlis (Azerbaijan's  parliament - ed.) that 20.3% of the 2025 budget expenditures were  earmarked for defense and security. She noted that the reason for the  budget increase, according to Sharifov, "was the risk of Armenia's  militarization."

"The defense and security budget was then increased by $1 billion,"  Hayrapetyan recalled. Meanwhile, the expert continued, according to  official data, Azerbaijan's defense and security budget for 2026 has  increased by $187 million compared to 2025.

Therefore,  defense and national security expenditures will make up  21% of the budget. "As for why Azerbaijan is increasing its defense  budget, I'll leave the answer to that question for each of us to  think aboutt," the Azerbaijani expert concluded.