France will provide more weapons and other military assistance to Armenia to help the South Caucasus country defend its territory, French Defense Minister Sebastien Lecornu said during his first visit to Yerevan on February 23.
"Threats hanging over Armenia force us to move forward faster," Lecornu told Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian. "It is very important for us to react and take necessary steps quickly."
Speaking after talks with Armenian Defense Minister Suren Papikian earlier in the day, Lecornu confirmed that Armenia took delivery the previous night of the first batch of French night-vision devices commissioned last year. The Armenian military will also soon receive air-defense radar systems and more armored personnel carriers from French manufacturers, he said.
The French defense group Thales signed with the Armenian Defense Ministry a contract for the supply of three GM200 radars during Papikian’s visit to Paris last October. Papikian and Lecornu signed at the time a letter of intent on Armenia’s future acquisition of short-range surface-to-air missiles manufactured by another French company.
Lecornu expressed France’s readiness to also sell more long-range systems to Armenia and announced that a French military adviser specializing in air defense will be deployed in Armenia to help it neutralize "possible strikes by potential aggressors."
"Nobody can reproach the Armenian Army for boosting its defense capacity," Lecornu told a joint news conference with Papikian, clearly alluding to Azerbaijan’s strong criticism of French-Armenian military cooperation.
The Armenian minister emphasized that Yerevan is acquiring these and other weapons for solely defensive purposes. In an apparent reference to Azerbaijan, he spoke of a "visible threat" to Armenia’s territorial integrity.
Neither minister shed light on a number of documents that they signed after their talks. AFP reported that the Armenian side also signed a supply contract with the French company PGM, maker of sniper rifles. It said no details of the deal were made public.
The defense cooperation is part of a deepening of French-Armenian relations cemented by the existence of an influential Armenian community in France. It comes amid mounting tensions with Russia, Armenia’s longtime ally, and as neighboring Iran signals unease over the pro-Western tilt in Armenia’s foreign policy.
"Our Iranian partners respect our cooperation with other partners, and I think our Russian and other partners should do the same because Armenia has no taboos when it comes to cooperation to the benefit of Armenia," Papikian said.
Armenia is "turning to partners that are truly providers of security," Lecornu said when asked to comment on the tensions between Yerevan and Moscow.