Took place the official visit of the Minister of defense of Armenia Vigen Sargsyan to the Islamic Republic of Iran. Iranamadu I think this visit is historical. It is emphasized that in recent times the Minister of defense of Armenia with official visit has visited Iran seven years ago, and it is expected that this visit will lead to important agreements in the field of defense, which, for obvious reasons, remain secret.
The visit aroused great interest and high expectations. Especially pay attention to the fact that the defence Minister visited the company “Electronic industry of Iran”, which specializiruetsya on planning and the development of technological solutions in the field of defense. The media spread information that Armenian Armed Forces gave Iran some information about prostrelyanny during the April war, Israeli drones.
And irrawady noted that Armenia and Iran may develop a joint project to combat Israeli drones. In contrast to such a visit seven years ago, this time the cooperation in military-industrial sphere for both countries in the first place. Hard to tell how much the visit was truly historic, but the focus of the visit is really unprecedented.
During a press conference held on 27 January, Vigen Sargsyan made a very interesting statement. Answering the question of supplies bought from Russia arms for $ 200 million, Sargsyan noted that a large part of these weapons is already in Armenia, the armed forces: “We will also continue our dialogue with the Russian side about the continuation of this project, because, in fact, what we get from Russia on the basis of our cooperation in the framework of the CSTO, can not meet the demand of ultra-modern weapons for our armed forces.
Therefore, we are looking for all possible ways as in the Russian market and other allies to replenish our armed forces with necessary weapons.”
The defense Minister noted that a schedule of visits, with the purpose of acquaintance with such weapons. “It is in our plans and our schedule we are sure to implement such visits” he said.
It is difficult to say whether this visit to Iran is part of the specified graph. Military experts can only answer the question — which countries can supply Armenia the types of modern weapons that cannot be purchased in the framework of cooperation with Russia. But this statement of the Minister of defense of Armenia and accents, made during his visit to Iran sound strange.
Maybe we missed something, but can’t remember since when Armenia started looking for ultra-modern weapons out of the Russian market and in other countries. So far, the international experts were of the opinion that on the one hand the supply of arms to the parties to the Karabakh conflict is Russia’s monopoly, and on the other hand, the potential of Armenia is not allowed to use other sources.
A week before the announcement of Vigen Sargsyan, Ilham Aliyev also spoke about the replenishment of their base weapons. But he, unlike the Minister of defense of Armenia, focused on the Russian market. “Yes, we are talking about new purchases. You better know how developed the Russian military industry. We are mainly interested in the most modern defensive weapons, creating new weapons. This also applies to helicopters and defence systems — the entire complex. It’s a constant process,” Aliyev told RIA Novosti in Davos.
And in the middle of last December Azerbaijan visited the Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin. In the days of his visit, “Kommersant” wrote that among other issues will be discussed a new agreement on arms sales.
The Armenian authorities have publicly expressed their dissatisfaction in connection with the sale of weapons to the enemy from the strategic partner. The answer was the same — this is done to maintain a balance in the conflict zone. The answer, of course, does not satisfy Armenia.
In this context, the recent actions of the Vigen Sargsyan can be interpreted two ways: either the intention is to disrupt the new agreement between Russia and Azerbaijan and these actions are akin to blackmail, or everything aligned with Moscow, such as the deepening of cooperation with Iran, with the aim of creating a counterweight to the Azerbaijani-Israeli cooperation.
P. S. During the December visit of Iranian President Hassan Rouhani’s speech was not even about cooperation in the field of military industry. Joint statement of the presidents related to the extension of cooperation in numerous areas, except the military. The Iranian defense Minister Hossein Gehani that even in 2015, promised to visit Armenia, were not included in the delegation Rouhani. Nevertheless, if the visit of Vigen Sargsyan, a truly historic and will have serious results, it must be area of cooperation was confirmed during the meeting Sargsyan-Rouhani.
