Azernews.Az

Russian-Azerbaijani talks on a final settlement of the issues on extending Moscow’s lease of the Gabala radar station in Azerbaijan began in Baku on Tuesday, Russia’s RIA Novosti news agency reported referring to the country’s Defense Ministry.

A Russian delegation, headed by Deputy Defense Minister Anatoly Antonov, is in the Azerbaijani capital to hold the three-day negotiations.

Russian Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov said in November that Russia plans to fully rebuild the Gabala radar station and at the same time reduce the size of the area leased for the facility's needs.

The Russian Defense Ministry reportedly announced earlier about holding negotiations with Azerbaijan to extend the lease of the radar station until 2025. The ten-year agreement expires on December 24, 2012.

Russia plans to complete the construction of a new radar station, Voronezh-VP, in Azerbaijan’s Gabala region in 2019 to replace the existing Soviet-era facility, Director General of the Radio Engineering Institute Vladimir Savchenko told RIA Novosti earlier.

The Gabala radar station, located in northwestern Azerbaijan, was built in the Soviet times as one of the most important elements of the USSR’s missile defense system. After Azerbaijan gained independence, the radar station become the country's property but 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.