Pundit says French arms deliveries to Armenia won't affect Baku-Yerevan military balance

Political analyst Armen Baghdasaryan has said in an interview with Armenian media that he doesn't think French arms deliveries will have any immediate impact on the military balance between Armenia and Azerbaijan.

"I don't think that France has a special role in the settlement of the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict, and frankly, in my opinion, France is not an ally of Armenia. Because if you look at the situation, this is a conflict between Armenia, which is a member of the CSTO, and Azerbaijan, which is the closest ally of NATO member Türkiye," he noted, according to Caliber.Az.

"France is one of the key powers of the collective West, whose side will France take? The side of the West, of course. Another issue is that there are certain cultural, historical and human ties between Armenia and France. But in general, France is not our ally. And Russia is not our ally, which is understandable. Because, as Alexander III said: "Russia has two allies: its army and its navy". Unfortunately, we have no allies in this matter. How do we decide in this case? We just have to make sure that geopolitical conflicts do not take place on our territory. Is there such a possibility? Yes, but it is very small and I honestly do not believe in it. We have to work in that direction.

Besides, I don't think that the French weapons will change anything in the military balance between Armenia and Azerbaijan in the short term. It is unlikely to change anything. But there is another problem. When such states as Armenia and Azerbaijan fight, i.e. not superpowers, the one who has strong and loyal allies wins. If, for example, France sends, let's say, 10 units of some weapons and at the same time has energy interests in Azerbaijan worth billions, the reality should be clear to everyone," the political scientist says.