ThePrint: 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 defense systems from India, Azerbaijan has via a third country indicated it wants to purchase weapons from New Delhi to balance the scales, ThePrint reports.

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

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.

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.