In recent days, the dynamic and abundant news flow has prevented drawing attention to an event that could be of interest to Armenia both politically and in terms of comparison.

Axar.az reports that Armenian political analyst Hakob Badalyan wrote about this on his Telegram channel.

"From March 10-12, Uzbekistan’s President Shavkat Mirziyoyev was on a state visit to Paris. During his visit, France and Uzbekistan reached an agreement on a strategic partnership. Notably, in November 2023, French President Macron paid an official visit to Tashkent, also traveling to Kazakhstan at that time.

Two key factors stand out here: Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan are major uranium producers with significant reserves, while France is a major uranium consumer. Especially after losing its positions in Africa, France is seeking new sources, including in Central Asia.

It seems that Uzbekistan is becoming a focal point. It is also worth noting that Uzbekistan is a member of the Organization of Turkic States.

Another key aspect of the France-Uzbekistan high-level talks is the investment portfolio. During Mirziyoyev’s visit, investment projects worth €6.5 billion were prepared, bringing the total French-Uzbek joint investment package to over €12 billion.

This comparison raises questions for Armenia, where grand speeches and even toasts are often heard about Armenian-French relations. However, how large is the Armenian-French investment package? What is the volume of French investments in Armenia? What major projects exist? Only the scale of the investment portfolio can truly reflect the depth and nature of interstate relations.

Of course, it is positive that Armenia is making defense purchases from France. However, this is only a relative indicator of the depth of interstate relations, as Armenia makes purchases from various countries, and the scale of purchases from France is not particularly large.

The true measure of the depth and closeness of interstate relations lies in investment programs and their intensity."