The Defense Ministry in Yerevan said Lieutenant-General Eduard Asrian, the chief of the Armenian army’s General Staff, and French General Pierre Schill held the talks on the sidelines of a conference of European army chiefs. It indicated that they focused on “experience sharing and personnel training”
“Understandings were reached to further develop cooperation,” the ministry added in a statement. It did not shed light on those understandings.
France pledged last fall to sell weapons and provide other military assistance to Armenia part of a broader deepening of bilateral relations cemented by the existence of an influential Armenian community in France. Those include sophisticated radars, short-range air-defense systems, armored personnel carriers and night-vision equipment.
Some of that hardware was delivered by the time French Defense Minister Sebastien Lecornu visited Yerevan in February this year. Lecornu announced during the trip that a French military adviser specializing in air defense will be deployed in Armenia to help it neutralize “possible strikes by potential aggressors.” He emphasized the defensive character of the French-Armenian military cooperation condemned by Azerbaijan.
Paris is also due to train Armenian military personnel. The French military will reportedly hold three “mountain combat training courses” for them this year.
Russia has long been the Armenian army’s principal source of weapons and ammunition. But with Russian-Armenian relations worsening and Russia embroiled in the large-scale war with Ukraine, Yerevan is increasingly looking for other arms suppliers.