Response from Baku on Armenia-France Military Technical Cooperation Raises Concerns, Says Armenian Foreign Ministry

The Armenian Foreign Ministry has issued a statement expressing that the official response from Baku regarding the Armenia-France military technical cooperation raises concerns. Having a well-equipped military with modern and capable weaponry is the sovereign right of any country.

“The Republic of Armenia recognizes the territorial integrity and inviolability of all its neighbors' borders. Armenia and Azerbaijan have mutually agreed at the highest level to recognize each other’s territorial integrity and sovereignty based on the 1991 Almaty Declaration. The Republic of Armenia is committed to this principle and has no claims beyond its internationally recognized territory of 29,743 square kilometers. Armenia has practically demonstrated this approach through its initiative to demarcate the borders between the Tavush region of the Republic of Armenia and four villages in the Kazakh district of the Republic of Azerbaijan,” the statement reads.

“We call on Azerbaijan to end the occupation of the vital areas of more than 30 villages of the Republic of Armenia. Azerbaijan’s behavior of predicting regional escalations at every opportunity raises concerns and substantiates analyses by several centers that Azerbaijan will do everything to undermine the process of signing a peace agreement with Armenia, potentially launching new aggression against the Republic of Armenia following the COP29 summit in Baku in November 2024. We draw the international community’s attention to this fact, as well as the unresolved status of Yerevan's official proposal to sign a peace agreement, which has remained unanswered by official Baku for over a month,” the statement concludes.