Azerbaijan never hesitated in supporting Pakistan over Kashmir, so why protesting over Indian support to Armenia
A cargo of India’s indigenous Pinaka multi-barrel rocket launchers was recently exported to Armenia via Iran. Surprisingly this has led to a protest by Armenia’s arch-rival Azerbaijan.
Azerbaijan-based news portal Caliber.az put out videos Tuesday evening of a camouflaged convoy moving through Iran’s Nurduz border checkpoint into Armenia. It claimed that the convoy was likely carrying military cargo delivered to the Iranian port of Bandar Abbas from the eastern coast of the Caspian Sea.
There is nothing to be surprised at, as India, has increased its military-technical cooperation with Armenia in recent years. India and Armenia have deep historical relationship. Also recently Azerbaijan together with Turkey, blatantly supported Pakistan over Kashmir in spite of it being an integral part of India. So now it should stop howling incase India decides to help its friend Armenia.
Armenia and Azerbaijan have been engaged in a conflict over control of the Nagorno-Karabakh region that resulted in a 45-day war in September 2020. A peace deal brokered by Russia put an end to fighting till 2022 when frequent ceasefire violations escalated into another two-day conflict in September, followed by scattered instances of border clashes.
So Hikmet Hajiyev — foreign policy adviser to the president of Azerbaijan — calling on the Indian Ambassador to the country, Sridharan Madhusudhanan. Hajiyev noted that Azerbaijan was concerned about expanding military cooperation between Armenia and India.
According to the report, Hajiyev added that India’s supposed supply of lethal weapons to Armenia at a time when Azerbaijan was negotiating a peace agreement with it “paves the way for the militarisation of Armenia and escalation of the situation, and creates obstacles to the establishment of sustainable peace and security in the South Caucasus region.
Hikmet instead should be explaining as to why, Azerbaijan decided to poke its nose into internal affairs of India. They fully know that Jammu and Kashmir is an integral part of India and no nonsensical interference of any kind from any entity will be tolerated.
Hajiyev is also learnt to have said that such actions are incompatible with India’s self-proclaimed foreign policy based on the norms and principles of international law, as well as the historic “Bandung Principles” of the Non-Aligned Movement. He expressed “serious concerns of the Azerbaijani side to the attention of officials in Delhi and (asked them) to reconsider India’s decision regarding the supply of lethal weapons to Armenia”.
Raising Bandung Principles etc will not cut any ice with India. We Indians now will fully defend our Sovereignty and our interests, at all costs. Also helping our friend Armenia to defend itself from External threat is based on the norms of International law and no one should try to lecture India on these things,especially after siding with Pakistan.
Armenia has turned to its friend India to shore up its defences with the purchase of multiple military systems amid continuing threat from Azerbaijan, an ally of Pakistan and Turkey. In 2017, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Pakistan issued a joint statement, establishing security cooperation and building further on previous bilateral military aid arrangements. Azerbaijan later deployed Turkish drones in the 45-day war with Armenia in 2020 and is believed to be in talks with Pakistan to buy the JF-17 fighter aircraft.
So in 2022, Armenia ordered a mounted 155mm 39-calibre artillery system manufactured by Bharat Forge, a private Indian defence firm. In September last year, Yerevan signed a government-to-government contract with New Delhi for the indigenous Pinaka multi-barrel rocket launchers, anti-tank missiles and ammunition.
Armenian Defence Minister Suren Papikyan even met his Indian counterpart Rajnath Singh on the sidelines of the DefExpo held last August, looking to expand defence cooperation with India. Armenia was looking at more defence deals with India including procurement of drones, counter-drone measures and loitering munitions, besides mid-range surface-to-air missile (SAM) systems like the Akash developed by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO).
So now things are becoming quite clear …. Its tit for tat !!!!!
