By Rashid Shirinov
The expansion of military-technical cooperation between Azerbaijan and Russia will further bring bilateral ties closer together and positively affect the level of further cooperation.
Azerbaijani MP Aydin Mirzazade made the remarks while commenting on the current state of military-technical cooperation between the two countries in his interview with Day.az on December 13.
Baku hosted the 11th meeting of the Intergovernmental Commission for Military-Technical Cooperation between Azerbaijan and Russia on December 12-13, where the parties discussed topical issues of the working agenda and the main activities for 2018.
Mirzazade said Azerbaijani-Russian relations have been developing dynamically in recent years, which positively affects the level of achieved cooperation.
“Undoubtedly, today’s high level of relations between the two countries is the result of a well-thought-out foreign policy pursued by these two regional states. Our countries build relations exclusively in the sphere of trust and respect, thereby contributing to strengthening the partnership dialogue and expanding the sphere of interaction,” the MP said.
In this context, he added, the development of military-technical cooperation is given special attention, and the strategic cooperation between Baku and Moscow is one of the main cumulative factors in the bilateral relations.
Mirzazade also touched upon the fact that Armenia, Russia’s closest ally in the region, is greatly dissatisfied with the country’s consistent supply of arms to Azerbaijan.
“Armenia, which has been conducting an occupation policy against Azerbaijan for more than two decades, in every possible way expresses its concern and dissatisfaction with the policy of Russia precisely because of military supplies to Azerbaijan. However, Armenia has not achieved progress on this issue – on the contrary, this fact has not affected the volume of Russian armaments in Baku,” said the Azerbaijani MP.
The existence of the Armenia-triggered Nagorno-Karabakh conflict makes Azerbaijan purchase arms to further improve its military-defense power and strengthen its combat capability.
Russia has been among main arms suppliers for Azerbaijani Armed Forces for many years. As for Armenia's incomprehensible claims, Russia declares that this issue is solely its internal affair, and that the military cooperation continues within intergovernmental contracts. It is also noteworthy that Azerbaijan, unlike Armenia, is fully able to pay for its purchases without getting into multi-million debts like its western neighbor does.