Armenia will continue to acquire Russian weapons “very vigorously,” Defense Minister Davit Tonoyan said on Wednesday after holding fresh talks with the head of Russia’s state-owned arms exporter, Rosoboronexport.
Tonoyan and Rosoboronexport’s Alexander Mikheyev met on Tuesday on the sidelines of an international security conference held in Moscow.
“The parties reached a number of new agreements on expanding the scope of cooperation and ensuring its continuity,” the Armenian Defense Ministry said in a short statement on the meeting. It did not elaborate.
Tonoyan, who was appointed as defense minister in May 2018, and Mikheyev met on at least two occasions last year. Their latest talks came two months after Russian and Armenian officials signed fresh defense contracts in Moscow. Their details have still not been made public.
Earlier in February, Yerevan confirmed the signing of a Russian-Armenian contract for the purchase of four Sukhoi Su-30SM fighter jets to the Armenian Air Force. The total cost of the deal remains unknown.
Speaking to Russian journalists on Wednesday, Tonoyan reiterated that the multirole jets will be delivered to Armenia by the beginning of 2020. The Armenian side has already made first payments for them, he said, according to the TASS news agency.
The minister also reaffirmed Yerevan’s plans to buy more such Russian warplanes. “We will be arming and rearming ourselves very vigorously,” he added. “The purchases of Russian weaponry will continue.”
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