Armenia seeks to know Indian way of modernising Russian arms
Armenia is keen to learn from India on how to modernise legacy defence equipment of Soviet and Russian make and operate them alongside defence equipment from the West, a senior defence officer of the Caucasian country has said.
«India possesses several Soviet and Russian make defence equipment.
It has successfully modernised Soviet and Russian era defence items. This is very impressive,» Col Zhiriayar Amirkhanian, assistant to chief of defence staff, Armenian ministry of defence, told ET here.
«We in Armenia are in possession of several Soviet and Russian-designed equipment and we want to learn from India's experience.»
Armenian military is also keen to learn from India how to operate Soviet and Russian-era equipment alongside defence equipment from the West and integrate them into overall military concept, said Col Amirkhanian who visited India this year.
It might be noted that Armenia has signed a defence purchase pact with France.
Armenia is negotiating purchase of additional defence equipment from India and even exploring the possibility of joint ventures with India for local assembly of equipment, the senior officer said.
Armenia is also working with India for avail facilities of mid-level officers training and training for equipment that Armenia purchased from India. «We started our defence cooperation from 2017 and it has picked up in real momentum over the last few years.
We are in regular dialogue with our Indian counterparts to improve collaboration,» Col Amirkhanian said.
India has emerged as a credible weapons supplier as per Armenia's requirements, ET had reported earlier this week. The last consignment sent by India to Armenia included Pinaka multi-barrel rocket launchers, anti-tank missiles, rockets,
