Should We Expect Military Assistance from France? Lacôte Responds

The Ambassador of France to Armenia, Jonathan Lacôte, gave an interview to 'Azatutyun', during which he clarified what he meant by his Facebook post on the day of heightened tension in Yeraskh, stating, 'When Yeraskh cannot sleep, Yerevan stays awake.'

'With this Facebook post, I wanted to express two things. First, I wanted to describe a reality: from Monday night to Tuesday night, at 2 AM, everyone was online, no one was sleeping; everyone was concerned in Yerevan, in Armenia. The second message was one of solidarity. I wanted to tell my followers that France is monitoring the situation at the border. People should be confident that the French authorities are fully informed at the highest level about what is happening at the Armenia-Azerbaijan border. Yeraskh is both a symbolic and strategic location. It is strategic because it is the closest border to Yerevan with Azerbaijan, and symbolic because it is a place where four states meet. There is tension there at the moment, but we must hope that Yeraskh can once again become the crossroads it once was,' he said.

Commenting on issues of cooperation between Armenia and France, particularly in the defense sector, Lacôte stated, 'Regarding cooperation in the defense sector between Armenia and France, we will, of course, be ready to consider all requests directed to us by the Armenian authorities. However, we must take into account certain realities. France and Armenia are not members of the same military alliances.' The ambassador emphasized that their role is not to prepare for future war. 'Our role is to avoid new conflicts and to accompany the political process that will allow for a final resolution of the problematic issues in the region,' he said.