The head of French diplomacy, Catherine Colonna, visiting Yerevan, announced this Tuesday, October 3, that Paris had “given its agreement” for the delivery of military equipment to Armenia, which wishes to protect itself from its Azerbaijani neighbor.
“France has given its agreement to the conclusion of future contracts with Armenia which will allow the delivery of military equipment to Armenia so that it can ensure its defense,” declared Catherine Colonna during a press conference in Yerevan.
Catherine Colonna did not specify what equipment was involved but assured that Paris would act “in this area with a spirit of responsibility on both sides and without any spirit of escalation”. She stressed that Azerbaijan, with its oil revenues and Turkish support, had “continuously armed itself to take action”.
Blitzkrieg
Baku won a lightning victory in September over the Armenian separatists of Nagorno-Karabakh, whom Yerevan refused to help for fear of a new war with its neighbor. Armenia, victorious in a first war in the 1990s when the USSR broke up, was defeated in the fall of 2020 in a second conflict with Azerbaijan.
Armenia, Russia’s traditional ally, usually arms in Moscow and Russian troops have a military base there, as well as a peace contingent in Nagorno-Karabakh. However, relations between Moscow and Yerevan are going through a period of tension and Armenia is looking for new partners in the West.