French arms supplies to Armenia "nothing more than show" Armenian military expert's standpoint

Speaking to the Armenian media, military expert David Jamalyan commented on the bilateral military cooperation between Armenia and France.

"This is a new theatrical show. Weapons are never superfluous, and the Russian-Ukrainian conflict proves this. If one acquires weapons with the logic of confrontation, the point of flirting with France is that France is a reliable military partner and can replace the supposedly unreliable Russia. But this leads to a very different place," the expert said, per Caliber.Az.

"Acquiring weapons from other centres of power, without contradicting logic, may create certain problems, but they are solvable problems. Today there is an attempt to present France as a counterweight to Russia: a substitute, a reliable partner, etc., but even if the arms promised to France arrive, certain questions arise. In the event of another possible war, we need unlimited and reliable supplies. For example, during the 44-day war, the 102nd military base was literally depleted. France, even if it wanted to, could not meet all our needs. If you add to that the fact that there are logistical problems with how the weapons can get to Armenia - they can only get through Georgia, and the Turkish-Azerbaijani influence in Georgia is quite strong, I think it's very likely that at any moment Georgia could simply ban the transit of weapons through its territory. It is not quite true to say that Georgia is a partner of the EU and so on. Türkiye's influence in Georgia is too great, not to mention training and so on. All this takes a lot of time," Jamalyan noted.

"France cannot replace Russia as a reliable supplier, even if it wanted to. The same France is now at the lowest point of its military and political decline. We see how Russia and its puppets are pushing France out of Africa. France is incapable of even maintaining its spheres of influence in Africa, let alone supplying us with arms, not to mention the problem of the need for arms on the Ukrainian front. It is naive to expect anything against this background. More support from France is another element of a consistent anti-Russian policy, the main goal of which is to increase anti-Russian sentiment among our public, and to create the illusion that France can be a reliable ally and partner instead of Russia. Normal authorities could also establish warm relations with friendly France, without anti-Russian sentiments and creating senseless illusions," the pundit said.