Azeri paper welcomes Pakistan’s help in developing defence industry

Ayna, Baku
27 Jul 05

Excerpt from C. Sumarinli report by Azerbaijani newspaper Ayna on 27
July headlined “Pakistan will support Azerbaijan’s military-industrial
complex”

Pakistan is interested in strengthening Azerbaijan’s army, and
therefore, it intends to support the development of Azerbaijan’s
military-industrial complex, Ayna has learnt from military sources. A
group of Pakistani military industry experts will visit Azerbaijan
soon, the sources said. During their visit, they will familiarize
themselves with the country’s defence industry.

In the opinion of military experts, it is important to pay attention
to the military-industrial complex in a country which might go to war
any time. In brief, it is quite a difficult task for a country that
depends on another country’s arms market to ensure its own security.
Experts believe that at the current stage, Azerbaijan should have
the capacity to produce mines at the least.

[Passage omitted: Azerbaijan buys arms from Russia at higher
prices since it is not a member of the Collective Security Treaty
Organization]

Some work on the weapons production was carried out in Azerbaijan in
the early 1990s. However, later on there were delays in this sphere
and the state forgot about the industry number one.

But at present, there is an increasing interest in developing
Azerbaijan’s defence industry. It must be noted that Pakistan could
provide our country with useful aid in this sphere. It must be
remembered that Pakistan has more than 10 defence enterprises.

Experts point to the importance of developing Azerbaijan’s
military-industrial complex in order to meet the country’s needs and
generate profits.

Military expert Uzeyir Cafarov says that Azerbaijan has some
military-industrial enterprises at the moment. “There are several
defence enterprises around Baku. Although they are not working at
full capacity, their output can be seen in the armed forces. If these
enterprises are given money, we can have a stronger military-industrial
complex. In this case, we can even work to orders from neighbouring
countries,” he said.

“There is no need to worry about Azerbaijan’s current
military-industrial complex. We do have defence industry and
there is development in this sphere,” a source in the Defence
Ministry told Ayna. The source said there was a plan to develop the
country’s military-industrial complex and work in this direction
is underway. Having said that our country was at war with Armenia,
the ministry spokesman refused to disclose details concerning the
military-industrial complex.

Military sources say that to develop its defence industry, Azerbaijan
will use assistance from Pakistan, Ukraine, Turkey and other states.
In their opinion, Azerbaijan has a broad industrial base and
specialists to create and develop its own military-industrial
complex. There is a great number of specialists and industries
in the country which can be used as an important part of the
military-industrial complex if need be. At present, there are mainly
some machinery-building enterprises.

At the same time, within the framework of the Individual Partnership
Action Plan (IPAP) between Azerbaijan and NATO, one of the priority
spheres is to update and modernize weapons and hardware in the
armed forces. In experts’ opinion, it is impossible to take serious
and substantial steps in this field without setting up a national
military-industrial complex.

It must be noted that a short-term (until 2007) and long-term (until
2015) deadlines have been set to modernize weapons and military
hardware of the Azerbaijani army. Weapons and light military hardware
will be modernized at the initial stage and heavy hardware at the final
stage. The fact that Azerbaijan’s military budget exceeded 300m dollars
in 2005 confirms that Baku intends to take steps in this direction.

According to some reports, the military R&D centre of the Defence
Ministry is engaged in developing weapons and military hardware
that meets current Azerbaijani requirements. In this connection, the
experiences of allied states such as Pakistan, Ukraine and Turkey is
being used.