Cooperation with Russia does not hold Armenia from buying weapons from other countries; the only question is the expediency: MP

The military-technical cooperation of Armenia and Russia does not hold Yerevan from buying weapons from other countries, Koryun Nahapetyan, the head of the Armenian Parliament Committee for Defense and Security, has told journalists.

“There are wrong views that we allegedly cannot buy weapons and military hardware from other countries. The reason why we do not do it is that Russia offers weapons and military equipment to us on preferential terms,” Nahapetyan explained.

In his words, there are many arms markets, but it is necessary to take into account which country is ready to cooperate and on what terms.  In this sense, the Russian arms supplies are more favorable now. 

Earlier this April, David Tonoyan, First Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Armenia, made a similar statement in an interview. Particularly, he said that Israel had once offered Armenia the weapons it now sells to Azerbaijan, for instance, the drones. However, there was no need for it. “Armenia found other solutions to the problem. In addition, the recent clashes in Karabakh revealed the low efficiency of many of those weapons,” Tonoyan said.

EADaily reported earlier that the Government of Armenia is currently negotiating with Russia for speeding up the arms supplies under the loan agreement with Russia for US$200 million. The Armenian militaries say the supplies of weapons and military equipment have commenced, but the specialists prefer not going into details.

The Russian loan was provided for a period of 10 years. By preliminary data, the payment for the weapons will be made in terms of the Russian rubles. Armenia is expected to buy from Russia the following weapons: Smerch rocket launching systems and the necessary ammunition, IGLA-S air defense missile systems with the necessary missiles, Avtobaza-M radar jamming systems, TOS-1A flamethrower systems, 9М113М rockets, RPG-26 grenade launchers, Dragunov sniper rifles and Tiger armored cars, engineer assets and communications gear.