Why was Suren Papikyan’s visit to Georgia important now?

RA Defense Minister Suren Papikyan was in Georgia these days.

During the visit, Papikyan met with Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze and Georgian Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Defense Irakli Chikovani. During these meetings, the progress of bilateral cooperation in the field of defense, the priorities of bilateral cooperation, the perspectives of their development, as well as a number of issues related to regional security were discussed.

It is no secret that Georgia is particularly important for Armenia in the context of arms supply as a transit country, and this topic could not be on the agenda for discussion, especially in the war situation around Iran, when objectively Armenia faces the problem of receiving arms through the territory of Iran.

Meanwhile, in February of this year, when RA Defense Minister Suren Papikyan visited Iran, serious political and military plans were drawn up, which we wrote

And in relation to Georgia, let’s remind that in January 2024 between Armenia and Georgia was signed strategic partnership agreement. The prime minister of Georgia at that time was Irakli Gharibashvili.

Georgian political scientist Zaal Kasrelishvili was in a hurry “declassify» The main goal of signing a declaration of confirmation of strategic partnership between Georgia and Armenia.

“During the Russo-Georgian war, we did not have such an agreement with Armenia, and at that time the Russian army was attacking the infrastructure of Georgia from the territory of Armenia. Now, after signing this agreement, Armenia is obliged to fulfill the requirement stipulated in it.” he emphasized.

As for what kind of problem Armenia is solving, or what commitment Georgia has taken, in fact, it is not known enough until now. Although, if the Armenian side does not have problems with the Georgian side regarding the supply of weapons, it is already good.

Here it is also necessary to remind Georgian politician Levan Pirveli. «Minval.az»in January 2024 interview in which he had opened The motivation behind Georgia’s decision to “provide” space for French weapons supplied to Armenia.

“Georgia agreed to this in order to get the status of an EU candidate country, because the EU and the collective West actually threatened to “make” a revolution in Georgia. And this would happen if Georgia did not receive the status of an EU candidate country. Therefore, in order to avoid these risks, Georgia had to agree to “military transit” for Armenia,” he elaborated. Of course, there were serious developments in terms of Georgia getting the status of an EU candidate country, but one thing is clear: any such decision pursues a specific interest, maybe now it has changed in the case of the Georgian side.

In any case, let us remind you that in November 2023 Foreign Minister of Georgia Ilya Darchiashvili had said that states have the right to acquire conventional weapons and ammunition, which are not prohibited by international treaties.

“Georgia’s position is to provide an opportunity for both countries to use our transit function on equal terms.” he stressed.

And Armenia, in fact, does not pose a threat in that regard.

On the other hand, let’s not forget that Georgia during the 44-day war was closed air and land routes for aircraft loaded with weapons from Russia to Armenia, which had confirmed also the former head of the General Staff Onik Gasparyan. Of course, Georgia presented its rationale for taking such a step, in detail we have touched on. 

Time will tell what more substantive results we will witness from RA Defense Minister Suren Papikyan’s visit to Georgia.

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