Associated Press Worldstream
June 25, 2005 Saturday 8:01 AM Eastern Time
INTERNATIONAL NEWS
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Azerbaijan’s president says higher defense spending linked to
relocation of Russian weapons
BAKU, Azerbaijan
President Ilham Aliev said Saturday that the ex-Soviet Caspian Sea
nation was increasing its defense spending in response to the
relocation of Russian weapons from Georgia to Azerbaijan’s rival,
Armenia.
Even though Moscow said weapons would remain under Russian military
control and would not be turned over to Armenia, the redeployment
“requires adequate steps,” Aliev said in a speech before military
school graduates.
“We have undertaken such steps, having increased our military
spending, which will continue to grow in the future,” Aliev said. He
said Azerbaijan’s military spending was set to increase from US$175
million in 2004 to US$300 million this year.
“Our army is the strongest in the Southern Caucasus,” Aliev said. “We
have achieved superiority and will continue to strengthen it.”
Azerbaijan is locked in a tense dispute with neighboring Armenia over
the enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh. The mountainous region inside
Azerbaijan has been under the control of ethnic Armenians since the
early 1990s, following fighting that killed an estimated 30,000
people.
A cease-fire was signed in 1994, but the enclave’s final political
status has not been determined and shooting breaks out frequently
between the two sides, which face off across a demilitarized buffer
zone.
Russia said it had redeploy the weaponry to Armenia under pressure to
speed up its military withdrawal from Georgia. Despite Russian
assurances that the move wouldn’t destabilize the region, Azerbaijan
has remained strongly critical of the relocation.
Aliev also said Saturday that Azerbaijan will also work to strengthen
its relations with NATO.
Azerbaijan has taken part in NATO’s Partnership for Peace program and
it has presented a plan that would further foster cooperation with
the alliance, “bringing Azerbaijan-NATO relations to a new level,”
Aliev said.