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US Acting Assistant Secretary: Gabala radar system is not a substitute for the plans that weâ€™re already pursuing with our Czech and Polish allies

10 July 2007 09:30 (UTC +04:00)

Following the security dialogue, there was a Special Briefing by Acting Assistant Secretary for Political-Military Affairs Stephen D. Mull and Deputy Assistant Secretary for the Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs Matthew J. Bryza and Azerbaijani Deputy Foreign Minister Araz Azimov.

Stephen D. Mull making an opening speech welcomed Deputy Minister Azimov and a very high-ranking delegation from the Government of Azerbaijan for the 10th annual security discussions, security dialogue with the Government of Azerbaijan.
â€œI think itâ€™s fair to say that the dialogue this year really took our security relationship to a quantitatively different level. We kicked off the discussions first thing this morning. Weâ€™ll continue on into tomorrow. During the course of today, we discussed in great detail the -- Azerbaijanâ€™s plans for further integration with NATO and how we, through our security assistance program, can help support that in their efforts. We agreed to be -- to continue to be very supportive of their efforts to develop a more robust relationship with NATO.
We received a very thorough briefing on the military of Azerbaijanâ€™s plans to modernize itself, to make itself more of a contributor to global security concerns. And in that regard, we were very glad to have the opportunity to thank the Government of Azerbaijan for its very strong and steadfast participation in military enterprises around the world, especially and including Afghanistan and in Iraq,â€ Ambassador Mull underlined.
The Ambassador said they also discussed, at some length, the recent offer from the Russians to use the Azerbaijani-owned Gabala radar facility as part of discussions with where they are going to be going on missile defense.
â€œWhat we do not accept is that Gabala is a substitute for the plans that weâ€™re already pursuing with our Czech and Polish allies. We believe that those installations are necessary for the security of our interests in Europe, and both of those countries agree and the entire NATO alliance agrees. And so we do not believe that the Gabala suggestion replaces that. Weâ€™re still going to go ahead with the installation on those sites,â€ the Acting Assistant Secretary underlined. /APA/