Azernews.Az

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said during a visit to Azerbaijan last week that Moscow was seeking to extend the use of the radar station it leases in the country and has submitted a proposal to the Azerbaijani government. However, Baku has indicated that extending the term of the lease was not on its agenda.
The Russian minister`s statement on proposed cooperation with Azerbaijan in operating the Gabala radar station comes as a surprise given that Moscow has repeatedly stated it had no plans to prolong the term of the lease. Just recently, Russia`s defense ministry said the country might discontinue the use of the radar in the South Caucasus republic as the radar station in the Russian town of Armavir fully meets its needs.
Nonetheless, Lavrov said Russia intended to continue using the Gabala facility even after the duration of the lease expires in 2012.
"The Russian Federation is interested in cooperating with the Azerbaijani side in using the Gabala radar station and will be realizing this interest through its agreements with our Azerbaijani colleagues," Lavrov told the press after talks with his counterpart, Elmar Mammadyarov, on Thursday.
Russia confirmed its proposal to the United States to jointly operate the radar station in Azerbaijan as an alternative to Washington`s plans to build missile defense elements in Europe.
"Russia`s proposal addressed to the U.S. on joint use of the Gabala radar station upon Baku`s consent still stands," Lavrov said. "This proposal is on the [negotiating] table as an alternative to non-constructive plans on deploying missile defense elements in Europe."
However, Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov replied that the issue of prolonging the lease agreement was not under consideration at this point.
Commenting on circulating media reports about an alleged secret visit by US delegates to Azerbaijan in connection with the radar station, Mammadyarov said delegations of military officials from a multitude of countries pay visits to the country, and those from the Pentagon were no exception.
"All this takes place within Azerbaijan`s cooperation with the North-Atlantic alliance, as part of the Partnership for Peace program," Mammadyarov said.
The early-warning radar equipment in Azerbaijan`s western Gabala district, leased to Russia for $7m a year until 2012, allows for the monitoring of air space for a distance of 6,000 km.
The U.S. is seeking to locate radar and interceptor missiles in Eastern Europe to protect itself against potential missile attacks from what it calls "rogue states" such as Iran and North Korea. Former Russian President Vladimir Putin offered to the U.S., during the G8 summit in June 2007, to jointly operate the Gabala radar station in Azerbaijan as an alternative to Washington`s plans to build missile defense elements in Europe. While the U.S. made clear it was ready to cooperate with Russia, it said the offer was an addition, rather than a replacement, for its missile shield plan.

Arms transfer
The Russian minister`s assurances that his country had not transferred arms and military machinery worth $800 million to Armenia in 2008 have apparently failed to appease Azerbaijan. Baku made it clear it still deems as necessary to investigate the issue, although Lavrov had rejected the arms delivery controversy even prior to his visit.
"It has already been proven that the document claiming Russia had transferred weaponry to Armenia published in Azerbaijani media is false," Lavrov said during a press conference.
He said the document had absolutely no merit and the way it was compiled raised serious questions. "All of the information cited there is totally unfounded, while the numerous grammatical errors in it, overall, raise serious questions as to where it was actually prepared."
Lavrov noted that Russia carries out military cooperation with a number of states without violating any of its international commitments or transferring supplies capable of destabilizing any region of the world. "It is on the basis of these very principles that we are collaborating in the military-technical field, both with Azerbaijan and Armenia, and this is not some kind of a secret."
However, the Azerbaijani minister insisted that since all details concerning the arms transfer have not yet been revealed, a thorough scrutiny still needs to be carried out on a number of related issues.
Azerbaijani media earlier published a document listing arms and military machinery allegedly handed over to Armenia, with which Azerbaijan continues to face a conflict over Upper (Nagorno) Garabagh, under the approval of a senior Russian military official. Baku came out against Russia`s move, while Moscow dismissed the reports as groundless.
Following Lavrov`s visit to Baku, Azerbaijani Deputy Foreign Minister Araz Azimov said in an interview with Reuters that Russia was supplying Armenia, Azerbaijan`s foe, with large quantities of weaponry.
"Russia is arming Armenia and handing over outdated weapons from its military base in Gumri. Also, new military machinery is being delivered to that base, but what are they doing with the old weapons? They are bringing in new ones but are not taking back anything."
Reviewing the outcome of the Russian minister`s visit, it appears that the issues currently considered as thorny and controversial in Russia-Azerbaijan relations remain to be solved. Moreover, an impression emerges that their discussions were tense.
It is indicative that a certain move was made by the Azerbaijani foreign minister. Mammadyarov, who is fluent in both Russian and English, spoke Azerbaijani in his statement to the media, which was the first time since the tenure of Azerbaijan`s late president Abulfaz Elchibay in the early 1990s. As a rule, Azerbaijani officials speak Russian during news conferences held with their Russian counterparts.
In essence, Mammadyarov demonstrated that Azerbaijan and Russia "speak different languages." Such public moves have not been made by Azerbaijan on an official level since Vladimir Putin was elected Russia`s president, even during a recent visit to Baku by Sergei Narishkin, the head of the Russian presidential administration. It should be noted that Sergei Lavrov is an official backed by Putin, which enables observers to conclude that the clout of Russia`s former president and now its powerful prime minister, in other ex-Soviet republics including Azerbaijan, is diminishing.