News - Klaar on Armenia arming itself: Every country has right to purchase weapons it deems necessary

I think that every country has the right to defend itself and to purchase the necessary weapons that it deems necessary for the defense of its territory. Toivo Klaar, the European Union (EU) Special Representative for the South Caucasus and the Crisis in Georgia, stated this in an interview to Armenpress—and referring to the fact that Azerbaijan criticizes the arming of Armenia, while it has a three times larger military budget, and airplanes with ammunition continue landing at the Baku airport. "That’s my simple answer. Most countries in the world are purchasing weapons from abroad for the purpose of defending their territory. So, in that sense, there is nothing spectacular or wrong about this," Klaar added. To the remark that the foreign ministry of Azerbaijan criticized the statements made by EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell after the meeting of the Foreign Affairs Council of the EU, and said that "The EU's attempts to supply Armenia with weaponry and thereby support its insidious militarization policy that undermines peace and stability in our region,” and announced that the EU will receive a corresponding response, effectively threatening not only Armenia, but also the EU, Klaar responded as follows: "I think we very much welcome the interest of the Armenian government to expand its relationship with the European Union. As for Armenia’s interest in the European Peace Facility, from our perspective, this is about potentially supporting Armenia in certain areas where it sees itself to be vulnerable—cybersecurity has been mentioned as one—and there again, if it does go forward (this is still in the planning phase), we don't see this as being aimed against anybody but rather, for the purpose of strengthening Armenia’s sovereignty, which, I think, is in the interest of everyone, not only of Armenia, but also of Armenia’s neighbours and of the wider international community. We want to have a strong, self-confident Armenia that is a good partner to the European Union and is equally a good partner to its neighbours, including to Azerbaijan."