Eagle Partner expands to include France and Greece as Yerevan officials visit Paris

By Nicholas Castillo

Starting Wednesday, Armenia is hosting the latest edition of the Eagle Partner joint military exercises. For the first time, the exercises will involve forces from France and Greece, broadening the scope of the exercises to include European militaries.

First launched in September 2023, the Eagle Partner Armenia-U.S. joint exercises were read as an early sign of Yerevan’s pivot toward greater engagement with the West. The first edition of the exercises featured 85 U.S. servicemembers and 174 Armenians.

This year’s exercises will include 250 Armenian participants from Yerevan’s peacekeeping forces, 58 American soldiers, 24 personnel from French armed forces, and 11 Greek troops. It will be the first exercise in Armenian history bringing together troops from Armenia, the U.S., and Europe under one set of drills.

According to a statement released by Yerevan’s Defense Ministry on Monday, the exercises will focus on peace keeping practices.

“The goal of the 'EaglePartner-2026' military exercise is to increase the level of interoperability of units participating in international peacekeeping missions,” the statement read, “to exchange best practices in management and tactical communication, as well as to strengthen the readiness of the peacekeeping unit of the Republic of Armenia's Armed Forces.”

The exercises come the same week as the French Eurosatory 2026 military exhibition. The annual Paris forum sees a variety of global defense manufacturers and officials come together to display military goods.

This year, Mkhitar Hayrapetyan, Armenia’s minister of high-tech industry, and Defense Minister Suren Papikyan attended the exhibition alongside 30 of Armenia’s domestic defense companies. The conference featured a new cooperation agreement between Armenian military technology company BooTech and Thales, a global arms company founded in France.

The two ministers met with a number of French military representatives, including a meeting between Papikyan and his French counterpart, Minister of the Armed Forces and Veterans Catherine Vautrin. 

Broadly speaking, as Yerevan has sought new military partnerships in recent years, France has taken on a major role in this push for security diversification. Paris and Yerevan agreed on their first arms deal in October 2023 and it has become Armenia’s leading security partner within the European Union.