Paris, nevertheless, believes that offering arms to Armenia reduces the chance of additional assaults from Azerbaijan.
The Kremlin accused France on Wednesday of stoking instability in its former imperial hinterland after Paris agreed to promote the well-known Caesar artillery weapons to Armenia amid rising tensions with neighboring Azerbaijan.
“Paris is frightening yet one more spherical of armed confrontation within the South Caucasus, and it’s doing so in several methods. She [η πώληση] it is another step“, International Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova mentioned, in response to Russian media.
Earlier this week, French Armed Forces Minister Sébastien Lecorny mentioned Armenia was serious about shopping for 36 Caesar self-propelled howitzers – a weapon manufactured by KNDS France and extensively utilized in Ukraine.
Paris has in latest months elevated army cooperation with Yerevan with contracts and coaching. Arms gross sales embody Thales’ GM200 air surveillance radars, whereas contract talks are underway for MBDA’s Mistral missiles.
Earlier on Tuesday, Azerbaijan accused France of undermining the steadiness of the restive area, lower than a yr after Baku itself launched a army offensive in opposition to Armenian forces within the breakaway area of Nagorno-Karabakh.
“The equipping of Armenia by France with deadly and offensive artillery installations and different sorts of weapons, regardless of the warning of the Azerbaijani aspect, is yet one more proof of France’s provocative actions within the South Caucasus,” Azerbaijan’s Protection Ministry mentioned in an announcement.
Nevertheless, Armenia – and France – accuse Azerbaijan of attempting to settle a decades-old battle by pressure and looking for to derail a peace deal between the 2 former Soviet republics.
“Azerbaijan’s apply of predicting regional escalations at each alternative is worrying,” Armenia’s overseas ministry mentioned in an announcement. The ministry added that this “proves” that Azerbaijan intends to keep away from a peace cope with Armenia with a view to launch new aggression after the COP29 UN local weather change convention in Baku in November.
Russia has traditionally armed each Azerbaijan and Armenia, offering the weapons utilized in a collection of wars between the 2 nations because the fall of the Soviet Union. A bitter battle within the Nineteen Nineties noticed tons of of 1000’s of Azerbaijanis displaced throughout their borders and Armenian forces take management of Nagorno-Karabakh.
Since then, Azerbaijan has used its substantial fossil gasoline revenues and shut alliance with NATO member Turkey to make sure its troops are higher skilled and higher geared up than Armenia’s.
Final September, Azerbaijan launched an offensive to retake Nagorno-Karabakh, regardless of the presence of a Russian peacekeeping pressure that didn’t intervene. The combating triggered the exodus of 100,000 Armenian residents of the world. In September 2022, Azerbaijan launched raids throughout internationally acknowledged borders, whereas the Russian-led CSTO army alliance ignored the Armenian authorities’s requires assist. In contrast to Armenia, Azerbaijan isn’t a member of the mutual protection bloc.
“Azerbaijan is considerably higher geared up than Armenia attributable to years of provides from Turkey and Israel,” mentioned Tigran Grigoryan, head of the Yerevan Regional Middle for Democracy and Safety. “France’s strategy is that offering arms to Armenia makes one other assault extra pricey for Azerbaijan and due to this fact makes struggle much less probably – no more.”
Armenia has introduced its intention to depart the CSTO and is working to strengthen its ties with the West. Plenty of leaked paperwork seen by POLITICO reveal that alliance member Belarus actively armed Azerbaijan earlier than and after a struggle between the 2 neighbors in 2020, regardless of its dedication to assist defend Armenia underneath the pact.
Supply: Politico – Russia accuses France of fomenting struggle within the Caucasus with arms sale
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