Armenia and China to Strengthen Military Cooperation

BEIJING — Chinese Defense Minister Dong Jun and his Armenian counterpart, Suren Papikyan, discussed advancing military ties between their countries during talks held in Beijing on Thursday.

“The sides emphasized that Chinese-Armenian military cooperation has progressed significantly in recent years, encompassing new directions,” the Armenian Defense Ministry said in a statement. “The ministers expressed their readiness to further develop Armenia-China cooperation, including high-level contacts between the armed forces of the two countries.”

The ministry provided no additional details about the talks or Papikyan’s other engagements in China. The Armenian minister traveled to Beijing on Tuesday after attending a summit in South Korea focused on the use of artificial intelligence in the military.

Chinese-Armenian military ties appeared to deepen under Armenia’s previous leadership. The two nations signed an agreement on “military and military-technical cooperation” in 2012. Papikyan’s predecessors visited China in 2011 and 2017. However, Yerevan has never officially reported or confirmed any acquisitions of Chinese weapons.

The current Armenian government is eager to diversify its sources of arms supplies. In the last two years, it has signed several multimillion-dollar defense contracts with India, China’s main regional rival. It remains unclear whether the Armenian military intends to purchase Chinese weapons as well.

“We can cooperate on international peacekeeping, humanitarian demining, military education, military reforms, and technology,” Chinese military attaché An Qiang said last year. “These areas of cooperation have great potential for development.”