News - France envoy on Pashinyan-Blinken-Von der Leyen meeting: How can helping Armenia be against Russia?

The purpose of the meeting to be held in Brussels on Friday between Armenian PM Nikol Pashinyan, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is to provide support to Armenia and to combine the efforts of the EU and the US in this matter. French Ambassador to Armenia Olivier Decottignies stated this in an interview to the Public Television of Armenia. "As well as to remind the decisions that were made when Armenia was facing the flow of 100,000 forcibly displaced people from Nagorno-Karabakh, and the challenges of accepting refugees are still considerable for the country. Security issues will not be discussed at the meeting. As for security issues, France assumes responsibility for Armenia. In recent months, we have started cooperation in the defense sector with Armenia, which is developing. The head of the Ministry of Defense of Armenia visited Paris, the head of the Ministry of Defense of France, in turn, visited Armenia, during which we witnessed certain concrete results, in the form of [military] equipment and training, which are already underway for the benefit of the Armenian army," said Decottignies. And regarding the remark that Azerbaijan and Russia are already slamming the aforesaid meeting slated for Friday, the French envoy said. "I don't understand how helping a country that is facing a humanitarian crisis, that is facing territorial threats, can harm territorial security. Those concerns are unclear to me. How can helping Armenia be against Russia? I don't understand that logic."