French defence minister arrives in Armenia

A delegation headed by French Defense Minister Sebastien Lecornu arrived in Yerevan on February 22 evening on an official visit.

The French minister was met at Zvartnots airport by Chief of General Staff and First Deputy Defense Minister of Armenia Edvard Asryan, Caliber.Az reports citing Armenian media.

Lecornu and his Armenian counterpart Suran Papikyan are scheduled to meet on February 23. Andranik Kocharyan, the chairman of the Armenian parliament committee on defence and security, did not rule out that more French-Armenian agreements could be signed as a result of their talks.

Earlier, a deal signed by the Armenian Defense Ministry and the French defence group Thales at the time called for the sale of three sophisticated radar systems to the South Caucasus nation. Lecornu and his Armenian counterpart Suren Papikyan attended the signing ceremony in Paris.

The GM200 radars can simultaneously detect and track multiple warplanes, drones and even rockets within a 250-kilometre radius, allowing air-defence units to hit such targets. France supplied two such systems to Ukraine a year ago.

France’s Le Figaro daily and AFP news agency reported that the three radars as well as French night-vision equipment shipped to Armenia on February 22. The Armenian Defence Ministry declined to comment on those reports.