Russia, Moscow / Тrend corr R. Aghayev / US's refusal to exploit Azerbaijan's Gabala radar station jointly with Russia instead of deployment missile defence system in Poland and the Check Republic makes impossible establishment of Europe's unified missile shield.
"It is to be regretted that Russia together with the United States and Europe losses the opportunity to establish a unified missile shield for Europe, though technological and technical opportunities are available," the Chairman of Russian Parliament's Security Committee, Gennadiy Gudkov, said to Trend on 27 September.
Within the framework of the G-8 summit on 7 June 2007, Russian President, Vladimir Putin, offered US joint exploitation of Gabala radar station and a radar station being constructed in Armavir instead of deploying Anti-Missile Defence (AMD) elements in Poland and the Czech Republic. US rejected the offer and stated it would implement its plans in East Europe. At the same time, US said it was ready to consider joint exploitation of Gabala radar station along with placement missile shield in Europe.
Gudkov is confident cooperation between the US and Russia would consolidate the trust between NATO and Russia in the world on the whole, and in Europe in particular. "That would consolidate the interaction and mutual trust between the United States and Russia and certainly would enable progress in Armenian-Azerbaijani dialogue," he said.
As for the trilateral dialogue between Russia, US and Azerbaijan regarding Gabala station, Gudkov said the importance of radar stations is gradually decreasing. "That happens due to new technologies enable construction of radar stations with less expenditure. Today these 'giants', 'monsters' can reveal a metallic ball with the diameter of 10cm far away from the Earth," he said.