New Delhi understands closer ties with Yerevan will provide strategic foothold in South Caucasus, ORF says

Armenia is pursuing joint production and development of high-tech arms with India to reduce reliance on a single foreign supplier, Observer Research Foundation writes.

As noted, New Delhi has supported Yerevan in rebuilding its security architecture and supplied advanced military hardware.

The India–Armenia bilateral relationship has acquired significant strategic weight amid the evolving geopolitical landscape of Eurasia. This trajectory reflects a calibrated response to shifting power dynamics beyond India’s immediate neighbourhood, particularly as the Pakistan–Turkey–Azerbaijan axis expands its influence across the Caucasus, South Asia, and Central Asia. New Delhi recognised that closer ties with Yerevan would secure a strategic foothold in the South Caucasus, help offset this alignment, and underscore the region’s changing geopolitical context.

The publication states that India’s defense exports to Armenia were intended to preserve the regional balance of power rather than escalate tensions. In this sense, they also contributed to creating conditions conducive to the subsequent peace process between Armenia and Azerbaijan.

India–Armenia defense cooperation has acquired wider strategic and geopolitical significance, as the South Caucasus emerges as an arena of renewed great-power competition.