The Armenian Defense Ministry and a French arms manufacturer signed a contract for the delivery of CAESAR self-propelled howitzers during talks held by the defense ministers of the two states in Paris on Monday.
Azerbaijan’s Defense Ministry denounced the deal on Tuesday as “another proof of France’s provocative actions in the South Caucasus” that will create a new regional “hotbed of war.” A senior aide to Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said it dealt a serious blow to efforts to end the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict.
“It is the sovereign right of any country to have a combat-ready army armed with modern military equipment,” the Armenian Foreign Ministry countered in a statement. “The Republic of Armenia recognizes the territorial integrity and inviolability of the borders of all its neighbors.”
It said Yerevan proved that by handing over several disputed border areas to Azerbaijani last month.
“Azerbaijan's practice of predicting regional escalations on every occasion is thought-provoking and comes to substantiate analyses by a number of centers that Azerbaijan will do everything to disrupt the process of concluding a peace agreement with Armenia in 2024 for launching a new aggression against Armenia after the COP29 summit to be held in Baku in November,” added the statement.
The statement noted that Baku has not replied to a recent Armenian proposal to finalize and sign the bilateral peace treaty within a month.
Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan has complained in recent months that Baku remains reluctant to recognize Armenia’s borders through the treaty. By contrast, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian downplayed on May 29 the remaining differences between the two sides.
Aliyev has repeatedly stated that Azerbaijan will continue a military buildup despite its victory in the 2020 war in Nagorno-Karabakh. His government was due to spend a total of $3.5 billion on defense and national security last year. By comparison, Armenia’s 2023 defense spending was projected at $1.25 billion.