AZERBAIJAN SPENDS $500M ON DEFENCE INDUSTRY

News.az
March 16 2010
Azerbaijan

Developing the state’s defence capacity, protecting borders and
strengthening the army are the policy priorities of Azerbaijan’s
leadership.

This was said by Prime Minister Artur Rasizade on Tuesday in his
report to the Milli Majlis on socioeconomic development in 2009.

‘The Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh remains
unresolved, 20 percent of Azerbaijani territory is still occupied. In
this regard, our government has to pay great attention to the
development of its defence and defence industry,’ he said.

‘Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has repeatedly said Azerbaijan
will not agree to recognize the independence of Nagorno-Karabakh in
either five or 100 years. According to the president, we are making
every effort for the peaceful settlement of the conflict, but if
negotiations do not lead to the liberation of occupied Azerbaijani
territories, we can undertake a military solution to the problem,’
Rasizade said.

The president described the decision to establish of the Ministry of
the Defence Industry as the ‘right one’.

‘Over $500m has been allocated to the defence industry since the
ministry was set up. Today, Azerbaijan has established production of
more than 350 military and defence products. Azerbaijan has signed
agreements on military and military-industrial cooperation with 28
countries of the world,’ the prime minister said.

‘The unresolved Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and the state of war
require us to take external challenges and risks seriously,’ Artur
Rasizade said.