He met with his Indian counterpart Rajnath Singh and visited an annual arms exhibition in the Indian city of Gandhinagar on Tuesday.
The Armenian Defense Ministry said Papikian discussed with Singh ways of expanding Armenian-Indian military ties and “a number of issues of bilateral military-technical cooperation,” an official euphemism for arms supplies. It reported no agreements to that effect reached at the meeting.
In a separate statement, the ministry said that Papikian spoke with the chief executives of several defense companies when he visited DefExpo 2022 in Gandhinagar and familiarized himself with military hardware displayed there. It did not elaborate.
Indian online news service ThePrint.in reported later on Tuesday that “Armenia is eyeing more defense deals with India.” Citing unnamed sources, it said that Yerevan is specifically interested in acquiring Akash air-defense systems and combat drones also manufactured by Indian companies.
Armenia and India reportedly signed last month contracts for the supply of $245 million worth of Indian multiple-launch rocket systems, anti-tank rockets and ammunition to the Armenian military.
An Indian newspaper said on September 29 that they will be delivered to Armenia “over the coming months.” The Armenian government did not deny the report which came amid Yerevan’s and New Delhi’s efforts to deepen bilateral ties.
India has effectively sided Armenia with in its intensifying border dispute with Azerbaijan. The dispute escalated on September 13-14 into large-scale fighting on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border which left more than 200 Armenian soldiers dead.
Officials in Yerevan complained afterwards about the Armenian army’s lack of modern weapons, responding to opposition claims that Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s administration has done little to rebuild the Armenian armed forces since the 2020 war in Nagorno-Karabakh.
In an apparent reference to Russia, Pashinian claimed on September 29 that “our allies” have failed to deliver weapons to Armenia despite contracts signed with them in the last two years.
Russia has long been the principal supplier of weapons and other military equipment to Armenia.