RUSSIAN, AZERBAIJANI PRESIDENTS TO MEET FOR FOURTH TIME THIS YEAR
By Judith Ingram, Associated Press Writer
Associated Press Worldstream
November 9, 2006 Thursday 2:05 PM GMT
Russian President Vladimir Putin and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliev
on Thursday hailed their countries’ burgeoning economic ties, amid
signs of concern from Moscow about its southern neighbor’s improving
relations with the West.
"Our bilateral relationship has reached the highest level since we
got independence," Aliev said at the start of the two leaders’ fourth
meeting this year. "It is necessary to continue cooperation … It
will help not only to strengthen ties between Russia and Azerbaijan,
but also stabilize the situation in the region as a whole."
Azerbaijan, a former Soviet republic, is the starting-point for a
newly-completed U.S.-backed pipeline that transports Caspian oil to
Western markets bypassing Russia. It also sent troops to serve in
the U.S.-led coalition in Iraq.
Aliev arrived in Moscow after a trip to Brussels, where he and NATO
leaders discussed energy security. Earlier this year, he got a warm
White House welcome from U.S. President George W. Bush.
Russia’s Kommersant daily said Moscow was worried that Azerbaijan would
be making more military purchases in NATO countries as it builds up
its armed forces and ultimately building a "strategic relationship"
with the Western alliance and even allowing NATO and the United States
to use its military bases.
Kommersant, citing unnamed sources close to the Kremlin, said Putin
would offer Aliev a deeper strategic relationship with Russia by
allowing it to purchase cheaper Russian weapons something that had
been blocked earlier by Moscow’s desire to keep Azerbaijan from
strengthening its military at the expense of Russia’s main ally in
the Caucasus, Armenia.
"Evidently the creation of a united front … against Georgia is more
important for Russia: The main topic of negotiations is supposed to
be Azerbaijan’s participation in an energy blockade against Georgia
in winter 2006-2007," Kommersant wrote.
Russia’s Gazprom natural gas monopoly said last week that it was
seeking to double the price Georgia pays for gas; Georgia accused
Moscow of "political blackmail" and said it would look for alternate
suppliers, including Azerbaijan.
Kommersant said Putin would also offer investments in Azerbaijan by
the Russian aluminum giant OAO Rusal and RAO Unified Energy Systems.
Putin said that Russian-Azerbaijani trade had grown by half already
this year over the same period in 2005, and he predicted it would
double within a year or two.
"We have very extensive bilateral relationships (with Azerbaijan)
in the political field, international affairs and the economy,"
Putin said.
Putin and Aliev were expected to discuss developments in the
Caucasus Mountains region, including the prolonged dispute over
Nagorno-Karabakh, the Kremlin said ahead of the meeting.
The disputed territory in Azerbaijan has been under the control of
Armenian and ethnic Armenian Karabakh forces since a 1994 cease-fire
ended a six-year separatist war that killed about 30,000 people and
drove about 1 million from their homes. The region’s final status
has not been worked out, and years of talks under the auspices of
international mediators have brought few visible results.