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Armenia Explores Arms Deals With India


Pinaka Missile system
Pinaka Missile system

Armenia is exploring the possibility of buying rocket systems and other weapons manufactured by India for its armed forces, the Defense Ministry said on Wednesday.

“A group of our military officials, who are India at the moment, are looking into Indian weapons and several of them are of interest to us,” the ministry spokesman, Artsrun Hovannisian, told RFE/RL’s Armenian service.

“The Indian defense industry has quite interesting solutions on various offensive and defensive weapons which interest us,” he said. “But I can’t speak of any concrete projects or agreements right now.”

The Times of India daily last week quoted a senior executive of an Indian defense firm as saying that the Armenian military is showing an interest in the Pinaka multiple-launch rocket systems manufactured by it.

“We carried out extensive firing trials for their delegation last month at Pokhran in Rajasthan,” said KM Rajan of the Defense Research and Development Organization. “The results were excellent.”

Hovannisian said in this regard that Pinaka, which has a firing range up to 75 kilometers, does not represent Armenia’s “sole and greatest interest” in Indian weapons. But he did not elaborate.

Another Armenian Defense Ministry delegation visited India and toured a number of Indian defense enterprises in May 2017. The ministry said it discussed with Indian officials “mutually beneficial variants of developing cooperation in this direction.”

The Indian ambassador in Yerevan, Yogeshwar Shangwan, said afterwards that his country is ready to deepen relations with “friendly” Armenia “in all areas.” “Even in the area of defense, we are open to cooperation with Armenia,” he told RFE/RL’s Armenian service in June 2017.

India - Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi meets with Armenian President Serzh Sarkisian in New Delhi, 3Nov2017.
India - Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi meets with Armenian President Serzh Sarkisian in New Delhi, 3Nov2017.

India’s arch-foe Pakistan staunchly supports Azerbaijan in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, refusing to not only establish diplomatic relations with Armenia but also formally recognize the latter as an independent state. Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said after October 2016 talks in Baku with then Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif that the two Muslim nations will step up bilateral defense cooperation.

Russia has been by far the most important supplier of weapons and other military hardware to the Armenian army. Hovannisian said Yerevan now wants to somewhat diversify its arms procurements.

“Of course we seek to work with a single supplier in order to facilitate the process of delivery, maintenance and training [of military personnel,]” said the official. “But there are weapons that should be acquired from other states because opportunities are numerous. And India, by the way, is one of those countries which have made huge progress in this area in the last 15-20 years.”

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