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4 October 2023 - 09:15 AMT

France agrees to deliver military equipment to Armenia

French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna said on a visit to Armenia on Tuesday, October 3 that Paris agreed to deliver military equipment to the small South Caucasus nation, France 24 reports.

Colonna travelled to Armenia after Azerbaijani forces last month attacker Nagorno-Karabakh, causing the forced deportation of thr Armenian population there.

"France has given its agreement to the conclusion of future contracts with Armenia which will allow the delivery of military equipment to Armenia so that it can ensure its defence," she told reporters after talks that she said touched upon security and defence.

France's top diplomat declined to provide any details.

“I can't give many details. If I have to go a little further, know that there are things that were already agreed between Armenia and France and that are in progress," Colonna said.

"There is a second category of things that we can do with Armenia," she added, noting that both countries did not seek an escalation in the region.

France, which has a large Armenian diaspora, has traditionally helped mediate the decades-old territorial dispute between Armenia and Azerbaijan over Karabakh. Colonna also met with burn victims, many of them injured by a fuel depot explosion last month in the breakaway enclave of Nagorno Karabakh, in a hospital in Yerevan./i