Azernews.Az

Russian Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov visited the radar station in Azerbaijan on Tuesday, his spokesman Aleksei Kuznetsov said.
“The minister became familiar with the radar station and was briefed on its combat readiness,” Kuznetsov said. “He was told that the personnel serving here take turns while on duty and that the facility is fully operational.”
The United States and Russia are negotiating a possible joint use of the giant Soviet-era facility to ward off common missile threats.
This was the new Russian defense chief’s first visit to Azerbaijan and the Gabala facility located in the western part of the country.
Azerbaijani Defense Minister Safar Abiyev has made it clear that the Azerbaijani government was fully in charge of the radar station.
“The Gabala facility is a property of Azerbaijan. Therefore, decisions concerning its operation could not be made without our participation,” he said after meeting his Russian counterpart in Baku on Wednesday.
Abiyev went on to say that Baku was successfully cooperating with Moscow in all fields and that Serdyukov’s visit would serve to furthering military cooperation.
The U.S. is in talks with the Czech Republic and Poland to locate radars and interceptor missiles on their soil in a bid to protect itself against missile attacks from what it calls “rogue states” such as Iran and North Korea. Russian President Vladimir Putin has instead offered to the United States to jointly operate the Azerbaijani radar station. 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. In the latest development, Moscow criticized Washington’s formal proposals, saying the U.S. was trying to unilaterally station missile defense elements in Europe.
On the same day, the Russian defense minister met with Prime Minister Artur Rasizada. The two reportedly agreed on the training of Azerbaijani servicemen in Russia and repair of military machinery in the neighboring country.*