Azernews.Az

Russia plans to rebuild the Gabala radar station in Azerbaijan and reduce the area leased to operate the missile defense facility, RIA Novosti quoted Russian Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov as saying on Friday.

The Russian Defense Ministry recently reported that negotiations were underway with Azerbaijan to extend the lease of the radar station until 2025. The lease agreement will expire on December 24, 2012.

Serdyukov said a new radar station will be built at a plant and further installed in the area of the Gabala facility. He added that any increase in the Gabala facility’s capacities would be "useful and very important", but in this case the Russian military would like to fully upgrade the radar station, "make it quite different, with different parameters".

The minister said that in general, Azerbaijan does not object to this plan and only financial issues remain to be agreed upon.

"They want to drastically increase the cost of the lease. But we would like to keep it unchanged while reducing the territory that we lease. We do not need this much space [after the new radar station is installed]," Serdyukov said.

Baku is asking for a higher rent, a compensation for environmental impact on the area, and wider employment opportunities for Azerbaijani citizens servicing the Russian personnel at the radar facility, as part of the new agreement.

Serdyukov noted that a working group has been established to discuss issues relating to the Gabala radar station with Azerbaijan. The taskforce includes representatives of the Russian ministries of defense, foreign affairs and industry and trade.

"I agreed with my Azerbaijani counterpart that the Russian members of the taskforce will visit Baku in the near future to continue discussions there. I have no worries that we will fail to agree," Serdyukov said.

The Gabala radar station, located in northwestern Azerbaijan, was built during the Soviet times as one of the key elements of the USSR’s missile defense system. After Azerbaijan gained independence and became owner of the radar station, Russia continued to operate the facility.

The radar station allows to track territory spanning 6,000 km, including Iran, Turkey, India, the Middle East, as well as the Indian Ocean and a part of the Australian continent. The early warning equipment would immediately track mid-range missiles with nuclear warheads potentially launched from these territories.