Europe/Russia Azerbaijan wants Indian weapons, New Delhi ignores request through friendly country

[Krishna with Flute]

Date Occurred: Dec 17, 2024

Azerbaijan wants Indian weapons, New Delhi ignores request through friendly country​

Story by Keshav Padmanabhan
• 1d • 4 min read

Azerbaijan wants Indian weapons, New Delhi ignores request through friendly country
New Delhi: Amid its ongoing conflict with Armenia which has been buying several weapons and defence systems from India, Azerbaijan has via a third country indicated it wants to purchase weapons from New Delhi to balance the scales, ThePrint has learnt.

However, the request, which came through a very friendly country, was ignored by India.

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It is learnt that New Delhi has made it clear to the friendly country that India will decide its bilateral relations and priorities, and does not want any other country to be a middleman.

People familiar with the matter told ThePrint that Baku never directly broached the subject with New Delhi, neither officially nor unofficially.

Instead, a third country approached India, saying that if the South Asian country wanted to export its indigenous weaponry and was looking for a long-term partner, it could look towards Azerbaijan.

People familiar with the matter told ThePrint that Azerbaijan was open to matching the current deals signed by its rival Armenia with India.

Yerevan has in recent years turned to India to beef up its armed forces—amid its conflict with Azerbaijan—and purchased rocket-launchers, artillery guns, ammunition, sniper rifles, anti-tank missiles.


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Armenia is looking at the possibility of procuring Astra missiles to strengthen its fleet of Sukhoi Su30 fighter aircraft, as reported by ThePrint earlier.

For India, Armenia has not only been a consistent defence partner, it is also viewed as a political partner in the region and has close ties with France.

Another Indian strategic partner—Greece—may send its obsolete Russian weaponry to Armenia to help boost its defence capabilities, as a part of a potential axis with India in the region.

Yerevan has also been a strong supporter of India’s position on Jammu and Kashmir.

India, France and Greece are all looking towards supporting Armenia’s security capabilities. In comparison, Azerbaijan is perceived to be a part of a growing grouping of countries including Türkiye and Pakistan.

Since 2017, Baku, Ankara and Islamabad have been focusing on deepening trilateral cooperation. In July this year, the leaders of the three countries held a trilateral summit on the margins of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Summit in Kazakhstan, while Baku has as recently as 2023 backed Islamabad’s position on Jammu and Kashmir.



Armenia and Azerbaijan have been fierce rivals since the territorial dispute in Nagorno-Karabakh. Following the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, the ethnic Armenians in the region declared themselves as the “Republic of Artsakh”, which received no recognition from any country in the world, including Armenia.

The two countries fought two wars over it, with Azerbaijan using loitering munitions and drones purchased from Turkey to great effect during the 2020 conflict. In September 2023, Baku, through a swift military operation, regained the territory of Nagorno-Karabakh.

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[Lulldapull]

Azher Bhaija is just a western toady outfit groomed by Israel for possible use against Iran.

That is all their purpose is, no matter what anyone says. Sovietized ex-muslim athiest mongols is what this Baqu regime is.

 

[Krishna with Flute]

When India started selling weapons to Armenia, they cried a lot and said that it is not in line with India's Non Aligned policy. Then they said that it won't make any difference. Then they said that they have superior Turkey weapons which will dominate Indian weapons. Now they themselves want to buy Indian weapon and offered India to buy as much weapons as Armenia wants to buy from India. However, India has denied. We are not that selfish nation. They unnecessarily poke their nose in Kashmir issue and supported Pakistan just because both are Islamic Nations. Now, they remember old friendship.