Yerevan proposes checking of arms purchases by Armenia, Azerbaijan 

ArmInfo. If we make a comparative assessment of the military expenditures of Armenia and Azerbaijan both in absolute figures and in proportions, as well as by the types of weapons acquired, it will become obvious who is carrying out mass militarization, Spokesperson for the Armenian Foreign Ministry Ani Badalyan stated, as she commented on the accusations of the press secretary of the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry against  Yerevan about mass militarization. 

She recalled that the top leadership of the Republic of Armenia  constantly states that it is not going to accept a security concept  based only on the army, and considers the normalization of relations  with neighbors and the establishment of peace in the region to be an  important part of its security concept. "And the top leadership of  Azerbaijan states that their main task is to strengthen military  potential. It is worth recalling that Armenia has repeatedly proposed  to Azerbaijan, and is proposing now, to create mechanisms for mutual  control over arms, but Azerbaijan leaves this proposal unanswered,  using increasingly aggressive rhetoric towards the Republic of  Armenia. I reaffirm that the Republic of Armenia has no agenda other  than defense against possible aggression, that is, there is no  offensive agenda. Meanwhile, Azerbaijan threatens the Republic of  Armenia almost daily," Badalyan said in an interview with the  Armenpress news agency. 

Touching upon the accusations that Armenia is allegedly waging a  campaign to prevent world leaders from attending the COP-29 summit in  Baku in November, the representative of the RA MFA called on her  Azerbaijani counterpart to answer the questions raised in her  commentary of October 4. "These questions were as follows: is  Azerbaijan preparing aggression against the Republic of Armenia, does  it refuse to recognize the territorial integrity of the Republic of  Armenia, does it abandon the peace agenda? The aggressive rhetoric of  official Baku, the refusal to offer to sign a Peace Treaty that  includes the agreed articles, make many Armenian and international  experts come to the conclusion that Azerbaijan intends to use COP-29  to create a smokescreen of legitimacy for escalating the situation in  the near future. At the same time, the number of such analyses is  growing.

Many analysts are of the opinion that in order to exclude such a  prospect, it is necessary to sign the agreed content of the Peace  Agreement before COP-29, otherwise the leaders who go to Baku without  it may unwittingly become warmongers. Armenia, for its part, states  that it is ready for the logic of signing the Peace Agreement before  COP-29. I would like to emphasize that the Republic of Armenia  supported the decision to hold COP-29 in Baku as a tool for  establishing trust between the parties and peace in the region, and  we would not like this to be used for the opposite purpose," Badalyan  concluded.