Following its procurement of the Indian-made Pinaka rocket launcher, Armenia is considering the mid-range surface-to-air missile Akash now. Defence cooperation was the main focus of the two nations at the bilateral meeting between Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and his Armenian counterpart Suren Papikyan held at DefExpo 2022 in Gandhinagar on Tuesday.
Defence officials did not share too much information on the bilateral meeting as Armenia is currently engaged in a conflict with Azerbaijan, an ally of Pakistan and Turkey. According to a report by The Print, Armenia is also interested in procurement of privately-manufactured munitions from India, with companies like Tata Advanced Systems Limited (TASL) and Solar Industries in contention.
During its 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh war with Azerbaijan, Armenia had bought four Swathi weapons locating radars from India. Also, in September, the two nations entered into a government-to-government contract involving Pinaka multi-barrel rocket launchers, Konkurs anti-tank guides missile and a variety of ammunition.
As India is trying to get rid of its import-dependency in the defence sector, its exports touched Rs 8,000 crore in the first six months of this year. It reached a record Rs 13,000 crore in financial year 2021-2022, which was an eight-fold increase to what it was in 2014. India has set a target of Rs 35,000 crore in the export of aerospace and defence products and services for 2020-25.
