ArmInfo. On June 17th, within the scope of the working visit of the Minister of Defence of the Republic of Armenia, Suren Papikyan, to France, a military-technical cooperation agreement was signed between the Ministry of Defence of the RA and the French military- industrial company KNDS.
On June 17th, on the sidelines of his working visit to France, Minister of Defence of the Republic of Armenia, Suren Papikyan, met with the Minister of the Armed Forces of France, Sebastien Lecornu.
During the meeting, the current state of defence cooperation between Armenia and France was discussed. The Minister of Defence of the RA provided an update on the progress of defence reforms in Armenia and the activities carried out within the framework of cooperation with France in this direction.
Both parties emphasized the importance of military-technical cooperation. New agreements have been reached in this regard.
On September 27, 2023, the then head of the French Foreign Ministry Catherine Colonna announced the appointment of a French military attache in Yerevan with the aim of further strengthening bilateral defense cooperation.
And already in early October of the same year, France responded positively to Armenia's request for military assistance against the backdrop of the threat posed by Azerbaijan. On October 22-23, at a meeting of the head of the French military department, Sebastien Lecornu, with the Minister of Defense of Armenia Suren Papikyan in Paris, it was announced that an agreement on the supply of arms to Yerevan had been reached. At that time, agreements were signed on the supply of three Thales Ground Master 200 (GM200) radars to Yerevan and a memorandum of understanding on the supply of Mistral short-range air defense systems. The second contract concerned Yerevan's purchase of night vision binoculars, equipment manufactured by Safran. France has already supplied Armenia with 24 units of Bastion-type light armored vehicles. In total, Armenia will receive 50 such vehicles.