Armenia will spend €23 million to purchase a building in Paris to house the country’s embassy in France.

The building, in the French capital's sixteenth arrondissement, once belonged to French President Valéry Giscard d'Estaing.

Armenian Deputy Foreign Minister Mnatsakan Safaryan justified the expenditure by noting the expansion of Armenian-French relations and the fact that the contract to use the building now housing the Armenian embassy comes due next year.

The embassy is now housed in a building donated to the Armenian government for free.

Last November, Armenia paid £16.7 million to purchase a building to house a new embassy in London.