Russian use of radar for missile defense BAKU, Azerbaijan, JUNE 8, SPA -- Azerbaijan is ready to consider proposed joint U.S.-Russian use of a radar facility in the country as part of a missile defense system, AP QUOTED the foreign minister as saying Friday. Russian President Vladimir Putin made the proposal Thursday to U.S. President George W. Bush as an alternative to U.S. plans to deploy missile-defense elements in Eastern European countries, a plan to which Russia bitterly objects. «At this time, Azerbaijan's position, which is supported by the United States and Russia, is that it's necessary to start consultations in a two- or three-sided format. I can say that Azerbaijan is ready for such consultations,» Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov said at a briefing. Azerbaijan is a former Soviet republic along the Caspian Sea. It borders Russia and Iran. The United States says the missile defense elements that it wants to place in Poland and the Czech Republic are aimed at intercepting possible missile attacks from Iran and North Korea. Putin contends that putting the system in Eastern Europe would mean it could be used against Russia's missiles, thereby undermining the balance of power in Europe. Putin said last week that Russia would aim its missiles at Europe for the first time since the end of the Cold War if the U.S. plan goes ahead. Russia already uses the radar station in Azerbaijan. With the world's second-largest Shiite Muslim population, secular Azerbaijan has concerns that Iran's Shiite theocracy could spread, and some analysts suggested that Iran would be angered by U.S. use of the radar facility. But Mammadyarov said the proposal «can only bring more stability into the region because it can lead to more predictable actions in the region.» Leading Kremlin-allied lawmakers, meanwhile, cast the proposal as a clear-cut test of U.S. intentions, saying the American response would baldly show whether Washington's missile-defense plans are aimed to weaken Russia's hand in the strategic balance _ as Putin has suggested. Their remarks suggested that Putin's offer has a flip-side: While it opened the door for cooperation on a divisive issue that has severely strained relations, it may also have been aimed to push Bush into a corner, forcing Washington to accept the offer or face a further rift. Putin and other Russian officials have rejected repeated U.S. assurances that the system in Eastern Europe would be intended to counter a potential threat from Iran. «If U.S. statements that the systems to be deployed in Europe are not aimed at Russia are true, then Washington will back ... Putin's proposal,» the Interfax news agency quoted Maj. Gen. Nikolai Bezborodov as saying. Bezborodov is a lawmaker in the lower parliament house, the State Duma. Konstantin Kosachyov, a member of the dominant Kremlin-controlled United Russia party who heads the Duma's international affairs committee, said the same thing. «If the American side under some pretext or other rejects this Russian proposal, it will be completely clear that the true aim of this project is not only a hypothetical Iranian or North Korean threat, but the task of restraining the nuclear potential of Russia itself,» RIA-Novosti quoted him as saying. Kosachyov called the proposal «the event not just of the year but of the decade,» suggesting that the tenor of future Russian-American cooperation rides largely on the U.S. response.
