India has an unexpected largest arms buyer

Armenia has become the largest buyer of Indian weapons, as evidenced by the economic report submitted by the Ministry of Finance to the Indian Parliament.

"The former Soviet Republic of Armenia has become the largest importer of weapons from India after concluding deals on the purchase of Pinaka missile launchers and Akash anti—aircraft systems," TASS quoted an excerpt from the report on July 23.

According to the Ministry of Defense of India, the volume of contracts concluded by the Transcaucasian Republic for the purchase of Indian weapons and military equipment for the 2024-2025 financial years reached $ 600 million.

India has established good relations with both Armenia and Azerbaijan, but New Delhi also cares about stimulating the export of defense products of its own production, Indian Foreign Ministry spokesman Randhir Jaiswal said at a briefing on April 26. "We have very good relations with both Azerbaijan and Armenia, but we also pursue a policy to stimulate the export of Indian defense equipment," he said at the time, answering a question about Azerbaijan's condemnation of Indian arms supplies to Armenia.

India had previously appointed a military attache for the first time in Armenia has already supplied the first military products to the Armenian side, including towed ATAGS 155 mm howitzers. Yerevan and New Delhi have also signed contracts for the supply of Pinaka multiple launch rocket systems (MLRS) and missiles to them, the Akash short-range anti-aircraft missile system, anti-drone systems and other weapons.

Earlier, Secretary of the Security Council of Armenia Armen Grigoryan said that the Transcaucasian republic has found new partners in the field of defense, including India, France and a number of EU countries. It was also pointed out that Armenia's purchase of military equipment after the 44-day war in Karabakh in the fall of 2020 "fell from 96 percent from Russia to less than 10 percent, which means that Armenia is diversifying (its purchases) and acquiring weapons from partners not only in the West, but also in other places — Asia, India and in different directions."