December 28, 2025
Caucasus Watch - Armenia’s Turn to India: Growing Ties Between the South Caucasus and South Asia
The South Caucasus is growing closer to South Asia. India and Pakistan exert greater influence in a region that was once considered geographically distant and unimportant economically. Recently, it was revealed that Armenia was planning to purchase fighter jets from India. Although the news was later denied, it nevertheless marks a shift in the country’s defense orientation and signals the deepening strategic entanglement between two distant but increasingly interconnected geopolitical theaters: the South Caucasus and South Asia.
Although Armenia has been expanding its defense partnership with India for several years, the decision to acquire combat aircraft would have constituted a qualitative leap, revealing both Yerevan’s frustration with its traditional security provider, such as Russia, and its search for new partners capable of supplying advanced military technology without political preconditions. At the same time, such a move would have had immediate regional implications, especially as Azerbaijan embarks on its own fighter-jet modernization path by turning to Pakistan—India’s strategic rival—and, indirectly, to China through the Sino-Pakistani JF-17 program.
This potential military procurement dynamic captures a broader geopolitical realignment. For Armenia, India has become an increasingly attractive partner, offering weaponry that is both competitively priced and politically unconstrained. The relationship has matured rapidly: over the past several years, Yerevan has purchased Indian artillery systems, anti-drone platforms, radars, and surface-to-surface missiles. Moving into the realm of fighter aviation suggests that Armenia is seeking not only to replenish its depleted arsenal after the 2020 and 2023 conflicts with Azerbaijan—when the latter regained full control over the Nagorno-Karabakh region—but also to reorient its security thinking around suppliers outside the post-Soviet sphere.
Read the full article on Caucasus Watch.
Emil Avdaliani is a Research Fellow at the Turan Research Center.