Azerbaijan, Baku / corr. Trend E.Huseynov / Russia and Azerbaijan signed an Inter-Governmental Protocol on the status of authorized representatives for implementing the Agreement on the principles and conditions of using the Gabala Radar Station. The document was signed on the 19th of June in Moscow by the Defense Minister of Russia, Anatoly Serdyukov and Defense Minister of Azerbaijan, Safar Abiyev. The contents of the agreements have not been revealed.
Russia is currently leasing the Gabala Radio Radar Station in Azerbaijan. The station is part of the Russian system in tracking the movement of ballistic missiles. The station was constructed during the rule of the former Soviet Union as one of the significant elements of the anti-missile system of the USSR. After Azerbaijan regained its independence and owned the station, Russia requested to use it. A ten-year agreement to rent the station was signed in 2002. At the end of 2004 the Ministry of Ecology stated on its intentions of monitoring the impact of electro-magnetic radiation on both nature and human health. Different local ecologic organizations urge that electro-magnetic radiation produced from the Gabala RS has a negative impact on the environment and human health.
On the 7th of June, as a result of the meeting with US President George Bush, within the G-8 summit in Heiligendamm, Germany, Putin highlighted his proposal to jointly use the Russian-leased Azerbaijan Gabala Radar Station with the US.. In response to the plans of the US to establish a missile-defense system in Poland and the Czech Republic, the Russian President highlighted the key advantage of such an approach: the system will be in maximum proximity to the object being tracked and observed.