DefenseNews.com
Sept 2 2007

Baku Builds Up, Warns Armenia, Warms NATO Ties

By DAVID PUGLIESE, BAKU, Azerbaijan

Increasing revenues from Azerbaijan’s oil fields is fueling a
military buildup as the country prepares to better respond to
regional conflicts and more closely align itself with NATO.
Azerbaijan’s defense budget has grown from $146 million in 2004 to $1
billion this year.
Since it regained its independence in 1991 after the collapse of the
Soviet Union, this secular Muslim country of 8 million has had one of
the region’s fastest-growing economies. Caspian Sea oil is expected
to generate almost $160 billion over the next several decades, and
civilian construction in the capital here is booming.
Azerbaijan’s armed forces are also benefiting, with oil revenues
boosting troops’ salaries and improving their living conditions. On
June 25, Defense Minister Safar Abiyev announced that a new training
school would be opened for Army noncommissioned officers.
Equipment purchases are also on the agenda, although one U.S. analyst
who watches the region said that it remains unclear what Azerbaijan
intends to buy.
Some purchases have already been made public. The Azerbaijan Air
Force announced in March it had bought MiG-29s from the Ukraine and
Belarus. A month later, news reports indicated the service was
interested in acquiring Pakistan’s JF-17 multirole fighter aircraft.
Azerbaijan has also expressed interest in small arms and armored
vehicles made in Pakistan.
In 2005, the country purchased 25 T-72 tanks from the Ukraine as well
as armored carriers. Belarus sold 19 of its T-72s to the Azeris that
same year.
Azerbaijan also created in 2005 a Defense Industries Ministry to help
establish a domestic military production capability. The ministry’s
officials are working with Pakistan and the Ukraine on that, an
Azerbaijan government official said.
The country is also intent on modernizing its Navy, and military
officers told the Azerbaijan Press Agency in June that capabilities
and training are being more closely aligned with NATO standards. The
Navy’s logistics system also will be improved.
And Azerbaijan wants to further cooperation with NATO, said Khazar
Ibrahim, a spokesman for the Foreign Ministry.
`Azerbaijan-NATO relations are developing in civil emergency
planning, energy, economic, science and security-sector reform
directions,’ Ibrahim said in an e-mail to Defense News.
Ibrahim noted that Azerbaijan’s troops are serving in Kosovo and
Afghanistan under NATO command and in Iraq under U.S. command.
The country is also working with NATO to clear unexploded ordnance
left by Soviet forces at their former military base at Saloglu, the
largest Soviet ammunition-storage facility in the south Caucasus.
When Azerbaijan regained its independence in 1991, the 138-bunker
facility was destroyed by the departing Soviet Army, scattering
thousands of pieces of unexploded ordnance over an area of 4,400
hectares, according to NATO. On June 21, the NATO Partnership for
Peace trust fund outlined efforts to extend the Saloglu project for
16 months.
NATO help is also being used in the Melange project, which is
designed to transform rocket fuel into fertilizers, Ibrahim said.
Angling for Membership?
Asked if Azerbaijan’s government wants to eventually join NATO, he
replied that the country `wants integration.’
In May, President Ilham Aliyev signed the country’s National Security
Concept, which highlighted integration into the Euro-Atlantic
security system, establishment of forces interoperable with those of
NATO member-states, and participation in peacekeeping and
crisis-response operations as main objectives of Azeri defense
policy.
U.S. forces also contribute to training and providing expertise on
security matters for the oil pipelines in the country, an Azerbaijan
government official said. But while Azerbaijan is keen to move closer
to NATO and the United States, it is also cognizant of the need to
maintain smooth relations with neighboring Iran and maintain ties to
Russia, the official said. It has rejected U.S. requests to allow
permanent bases in the country and continues to call for a diplomatic
resolution to tensions between Iran and the United States.
In February, Aliyev warned in an interview with the German TV station
Deutsche Welle against assuming that his country will ultimately
decide to join NATO. An Azeri government official said the country
recognizes the need not to upset Russia by becoming too closely
aligned with the United States and NATO.
Some analysts and news reports from the region have suggested the
defense buildup has more to do with Azeri plans to use military
action to regain control over Nagorno-Karabakh, an area it fought a
war with Armenia over in the early 1990s. On July 2, Aliyev said that
his country was `close to the liberation of Karabakh.’
Azerbaijan is the most powerful nation in the region and is prepared
for military operations, he said, adding that Armenia should withdraw
its troops from the disputed area. Azeri officials are keen to point
out that their country’s military spending is more than the entire
Armenian federal budget.
In June 2005, Aliyev voiced similar threats, adding that increased
defense spending would help the Azerbaijan armed forces deal with
threats to its sovereignty.
But a U.S. specialist in the region dismisses the notion that the
Azeri defense buildup is linked to Nagorno-Karabakh. Armenian forces
still have the upper hand there, he said, and it will be years before
the Azeri military can transform itself into an effective fighting
force. Armenian troops still hold mountainous terrain in the region,
he said, and any Azeri military push would be literally an uphill
battle.

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