Azerbaijan is “forced” to approve” a “record” military budget of $5 billion due to the West supplying Armenia with weapons, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said in an interview with Russian media.

"We are naturally forced to take adequate measures. Our next military budget in 2025 will be a record one - about 5 billion dollars," he noted.

Aliyev noted that France, India and the United States are arming Armenia. However, according to him, Washington does not admit these supplies. He claimed that Azerbaijan has tracked American military transport planes at Armenian airports.

In June, French Minister of the Armed. Forces Sébastien Lecornu announced that Armenia had signed a contract with France to purchase French self-propelled artillery units CAESAR.

Aliyev also noted that Azerbaijan plans to continue purchasing Russian weapons although that process has been suspended for “objective reasons”.

“But I must say that at least in the last three years no new contracts for the purchase of Russian weapons have been signed,” RIA Novosti cited him as saying.

According to Aliyev, the absence of new contracts is explained by the fact that the Russian military-industrial complex now focuses "on the domestic consumer," i.e. Russia’s war on Ukraine.

He said Baku has shifted the deadlines for the implementation of military contracts that were reached four years ago.