France Donates Military Medical Equipment Of $1 Million to Armenia

YEREVAN, December 1 (Noyan Tapan). The French government donated
medical equipment worth about 1 million dollars to the Armenian armed
forces. France's Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to
Armenia Henri Cuny visited on December 1 Yerevan military hospital in
order to present the equipment.  Ambassador Cuny noted that France
limited the cooperation with the South Caucasian countries in the
military sphere because of the remaining conflict situation in the
region. On the other hand, the three South Caucasian republics, with
which France has relations, should participate in the cooperation.

According to the ambassador, this is the explanation of the choice: to
donate the miltary medical equipment to the Armenian armed forces. He
underlined that the matter concerns quite a tangible rather than
symbolic donation since the total cost of the medical equipment is
about 1 million dollars. The RA Deputy Minister of Defence Artur
Aghabekian told journalists the ministry has developed a long-term
program to provide the army with medical items and equipment. The
program started in 2004 by the state budget resources and will
continue until 2007. According to him, all the equipment provided by
the French side is included in this program, and more modern equipment
will be purchased by the money envisaged for the equipment purchase.

The deputy minister stated that most of the medical equipment will be
sent to the military units' first-aid posts, which are considered to
be important not only in terms of providing first aid to servicemen
but also because of prevention of diseases among the staff.