France plants flag in Russia’s backyard with Armenia arms deals

YEREVAN, Armenia — France wants Armenia to know it has its back — amid increased tensions with its neighbor Azerbaijan and strained ties with its historic ally, Russia.

On Friday, French Armed Forces Minister Sébastien Lecornu and his Armenian counterpart Suren Papikyan met in the Armenian capital to highlight deepening defense links between the two countries.

Lecornu's airplane carried night vision goggles for Armenia, which also signed a contract to buy assault rifles from French company PGM; discussions about purchasing short-range Mistral missiles from European contractor MBDA are moving forward.

"This cooperation, which has been going on for a year and a half now, is of great importance to Armenia. ... We've made progress, which means we can look forward to long-term planning in the years ahead," Papikyan told reporters after the meeting.

"It's an absolute priority for us to help Armenia protect its people ... it's because Armenia needs us right now that we're here," Lecornu added.

That closer relationship with France came as Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan on Friday said Armenia has effectively suspended its membership in the Moscow-dominated Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) military alliance.

Armenia feels betrayed by Moscow after Azerbaijan launched an offensive to retake the breakaway Armenian-inhabited region of Nagorno-Karabakh in September. Russia had a peacekeeping contingent stationed there, which stood aside and didn't interfere.

Armenia has also made clear it doesn't support Russia's war in Ukraine.

But untangling from the Kremlin's grip is complex; Pashinyan said there was no intention to shut a Russian military base in Armenia.

Armenia's main security challenge is Azerbaijan, which is demanding a corridor running through Armenia to connect to its exclave of Nakhchivan — something Armenia refuses to agree to. A skirmish earlier this month killed four Armenian soldiers.

With its alliance with Moscow in tatters, Armenia is looking for new friends and France, with its large ethnic Armenian minority, is one of the only Western countries in the running.

"Yerevan is looking to those partners who truly provide security," Lecornu said, in a thinly-veiled poke at Russia. Friday was the first trip to Yerevan by a French defense minister and Lecornu's fourth meeting with his Armenian counterpart Papikyan since May 2022.

"The visit of the French minister of the armed forces only two years after the start of our defense relationship is proof that it is already systemic and far-reaching," Papikyan said.

Pashinyan was in Paris earlier this week where he met with French President Emmanuel Macron, who warned that “the danger of escalation remains real” in the wake of the border incident.

The Armenian PM was in the French capital to attend the ceremony of Missak Manouchian's induction in the Panthéon mausoleum of French national heroes — the stateless poet of Armenian origin died as a resistance fighter during World War II.

Weapons deals

Armenia is looking for political backing and also for help in transforming its Soviet-era army into one that can better stand up to Azerbaijan's larger and much better equipped military. The oil- and gas-rich country has a close military relationship with NATO member Turkey and is a big buyer of Israeli weapons.

The Armenian government is expected to spend between $1.4 billion and $1.5 billion on defense this year and is also buying weaponry from India. 

Armenia is seeking Western support to “restore the military balance” with Azerbaijan, which Tigran Grigoryan, director of Yerevan’s Regional Center for Democracy and Security, said “has been exploiting Armenia's vulnerabilities and its inability to defend itself, pursuing an extremely maximalist agenda.”

But for Armenia, there’s a long road ahead to have a military able to actually deter local regional powers.

Just buying modern weapons isn't enough, said Grigoryan. “All military analysts in Armenia agree that without a comprehensive reform process, all these procurements won't be of any use.”

Lecornu was in the Armenian capital with French defense contractors MBDA, Nexter, Arquus, Safran, Thales and PGM, as well as lawmakers from both the majority and opposition parties. 

Besides the MBDA-made Mistral missiles, the two ministers also discussed surface-to-air defense, short-, medium- and long-range defense, artillery and anti-drone systems, Lecornu told reporters. In October, the two ministers announced contracts for three Thales-made Ground Master 200 radars, expected to be delivered this summer.

France has also been training Armenian troops. Paris and Yerevan on Friday signed a partnership between France's elite Saint-Cyr military school and the Armenian military academy. A French military official will act as a defense consultant for the Armenian executive branch as of July.

“The Armenian army is of Soviet tradition and needs to transform in terms of both doctrine and equipment,” a French official told reporters on Wednesday.

Paris insists the weapons it's selling are only defensive, but France’s growing interest in the region has been met with fiery criticism from Azerbaijan.

“The half-baked move by France to insert itself into the region will likely provoke significant reactions from Russia and Iran, and Azerbaijan is concerned that this will lead to regional instability, obstructing efforts towards normalization,” said Ayaz Rzayev, a research fellow at Baku’s influential Topchubashov Center think tank. 

“Even if weapons are labeled as defensive, they inherently possess some offensive potential. Consequently, Azerbaijan feels compelled to respond to these arms deliveries with countermeasures,” he added. “All of this creates a vicious cycle of actions and counteractions that could spiral into an arms race, potentially leading to conflict.”