Since January 2021, the share of Russia in arms deliveries to Armenia has sharply dropped from the previous 96% to just 10%. This was recently announced by the Secretary of the Security Council of Armenia Armen Grigoryan in an interview with Public Television.
Grigoryan explained the reasons for the decrease in the share of Russian deliveries, noting the unsatisfactory fulfillment of previously concluded contracts by Russian suppliers.
According to him, after the Second Nagorno-Karabakh War in 2020, Armenia entered into contracts with Russia for the supply of arms worth hundreds of millions of dollars. However, Russia, Grigoryan explained, failed to fulfill the arms deliveries in full, which led to the need to seek new partners in the security sector.
"We began to look for new partners, and one of the most notable ones became India, as well as France and various countries of the European Union," Grigoryan noted.
Thus, diversification of contacts in the security sector has led to a significant reduction in Russia's positions as the main supplier of arms to the Armenian army.
"In 2020, 96% of Armenia's military-technical cooperation was with Russia. Since the beginning of 2021, we have concluded contracts for the supply of arms worth billions of dollars with various countries. Currently, Russia's share in these contracts has decreased to 10%," he summarized.
BMG reported that Armenian-Russian relations are currently experiencing a crisis. Against the backdrop of growing tension in relations, Armenia informed Russia through official channels of the need to withdraw Russian border guards from the Zvartnots airport in Yerevan, which became another twist exacerbating bilateral contradictions.
