No one can criticize Armenia for developing its defense capabilities. The key statements of the Papikyan-Lekornew press conference

Today, 2 documents were signed in the administrative complex of the RA Ministry of Defense.

One of the documents was signed by the Ministers of Defense of Armenia and France, the other by Deputy Minister of Defense Karen Brutyan and the representative of the French company.

Suren Papikyan and Sebastian Lecornu answered the questions of Armenian and French media representatives.

Below we present the key statements made during the press conference.

RA Defense Minister Suren Papikyan

"I must emphasize the comprehensive advisory support in the direction of defense reforms, the field of military education, the direction of rapidly developing exercises and, of course, the process of modernization of the Armed Forces and defense means and the development of military-technical cooperation."

"At the moment, RA has adopted its own armed forces, renewed and modernized its capabilities. This implies that we have the need to fill these needs with our own funds, and the support of partner countries would only help us, including European partners. It also refers to the opportunities to use the peace tools."

"Armenia buys weapons and ammunition to protect its territorial integrity and sovereignty. It is not aimed at aggression towards any country."

"I cannot deny that there is a danger (of an attack by the Azerbaijani side), which is visible from the current rhetoric, and our obligation is to protect the territorial integrity of our country and the sovereignty of our country."

Regardless of what kind of security environment we will have after signing a peace treaty, the RA Armed Forces will continue purchasing defensive weapons and ammunition. The contracts signed today are about that.

"Armenia set itself the task of diversifying its armed forces and military-technical cooperation after the events of September 2022, when the sovereign territory of the Republic of Armenia was attacked and territories were occupied."

"The Armenian-French cooperation is for the sake of RA and not against anyone. It is our right to cooperate with both France and Iran, and everyone should know that."

Our French partners respect cooperation with other partners, Iranian partners respect other partnerships and, I think, our Russian and other partners should do the same.

"Replenishment of RA Air Defense Forces is about having RA's own anti-aircraft defense and ensuring the safety of our skies. We do not buy weapons for any partner, friend or ally."

French Minister of Armed Forces Sebastien Lecorneau

"During your visit to Paris, you signed (referring to Suren Papikyan-ed.) the first assortment for sale: night vision binoculars. You received the first batch yesterday evening.
The batch of "Bastion" armored vehicles will also arrive in Armenia soon."

I won't go into too much detail about what equipment will come, but all of them are defensive, because the protection of both the population and the borders is a priority in this region.

"France will have a military adviser in Armenia who will always be in Armenia."

"No one can criticize the Armenian army for strengthening and developing its defense capabilities."

"If necessary, if Armenia needs it, short, medium and other long-range missiles will also be at your disposal (Armenia-ed.)."

"Acquisition of weaponry and training to use it all is a priority at this time."

Each time we will proceed from the operational needs expressed by our Armenian partners, and we will make proposals according to those needs, be it armaments or training.

"If Armenia was not under threat, we would not need these discussions. Therefore, it is the threats that led the Armenian side to talk about defense as well."