Defense Ministry: Russia plans to fully rebuild radar station in Azerbaijan

Azerbaijan, Baku, Nov.18 / Trend / Russia plans to fully rebuild the Gabala radar station in Azerbaijan and at the same time reduce the volume of territory leased for the radar station's needs, RIA Novosti quotes the Russian Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov as saying on Friday. Russian Defense Ministry has recently reported about negotiations with Azerbaijan to extend lease of the Gabala radar station until 2025. Term of lease agreement and operation conditions of this facility will expire on Dec.24, 2012. "We know how to do it. Rather, it will be a station with great grade of manufacture, and it will be manufactured at the factory and directly assembled in Gabala," Serdyukov said. He added that any increase in Gabala facilities is useful and very important, but in this case, the Russian militaries would like to fully upgrade the station, "make it quite different, with different parameters". According to Serdyukov, in general Azerbaijan is not against it, and the parties should only settle only the financial part. "They want to drastically increase the cost (lease), however, we would like to keep the previous cost, while dramatically reduce the territory, which we lease there. We do not need such volume of communication at the new station," Serdyukov said. He recalled that a working group has been created for cooperation with Azerbaijan on issues related to the Gabala radar station. It particularly includes representatives of the Defense Ministry, Foreign Ministry and Industry and Trade Ministry. "We agreed with my (Azerbaijani) counterpart that commission members from the Russian side will visit Baku in the near future and they will continue discussions there. I have no fears that we will fail to agree," Serdyukov said. The Gabala RS, located on the north-western Azerbaijan, was built in Soviet times as one of the most important elements of a missile defense system of the USSR. After Azerbaijan gained independence, the RS become the country's property and Russia continued to use the station. A ten-year agreement to lease the station was signed in 2002. Do you have any feedback? Contact our journalist at agency@trend.az