AZERI, RUSSIAN DEFENCE MINISTERS DISCUSS TIES, REGIONAL SITUATION

TURAN News Agency, Azerbaijan
Nov 28 2007

Baku, 28 November: All the decisions regarding the fate of the Qabala
radar station have to be taken with Azerbaijan’s participation
and taking into account the fact that the station is Azerbaijan’s
property, Azerbaijani Defence Minister Safar Abiyev said at a meeting
with Russian counterpart Anatoliy Serdyukov today.

At the beginning, the ministers had a face-to-face meeting and then
they continued the negotiations in an expanded format, the press
service of the [Azerbaijani] Defence Ministry has reported.

Russia and Azerbaijan have been fruitfully cooperating in many spheres
and this cooperation will continue, Abiyev said. "Hope this visit
will help strengthen military and military-technical cooperation
between the two countries," Abiyev said.

Speaking about the military and political situation in the South
Caucasus, Azerbaijani Defence Minister said that the situation in the
region remained tense as a result of Armenia’s aggression against
Azerbaijan. The UN Security Council had adopted four resolutions
which were ignored by Armenia. "Regrettably, the CIS [Commonwealth of
Independent States] has not yet accessed Armenia’s aggressive policy
and has not taken any steps in this direction," Abiyev said. In
response, Anatoliy Serdyukov expressed his confidence in further
development of bilateral relations.

At his meeting with Prime Minister Artur Rasizada, Serdyukov spoke
about an agreement to train military specialists for Azerbaijan at
Russian higher education institutions and repair Azerbaijani military
hardware at Russian enterprises.

Serdyukov also said that he discussed the Karabakh problem with Abiyev.