Azerbaijan, Baku /corr. Trend K.Ramazanova / The Minister of National Defence of Poland considers that the Russian proposal on cooperation with the USA on the Russian-leased Azerbaijani Gabala Radar Station and in Armavir is not real and unsatisfactory. "The Russian proposal belongs to those which the President knows beforehand that they are unreal and unsatisfactory," the Minister of National Defence of Poland, Aleksander Szczyglo, said in his interview with the Independent Newspaper published on 11 July.
On 7 June, as a result of a meeting with the US President George Bush, during the G-8 summit in Heiligendamm, Germany, Putin highlighted his proposal to jointly use the Russian-leased Azerbaijani Gabala Radar Station with the US. The station is part of the Russian system which tracks the movement of ballistic missiles. In response to the plans of the US to establish a missile-defence 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.
According to the Polish Minister, from a technical point of view, Putin's proposal does not find reflection in the conception of a missile defence system. Szczyglo refused to speak of the location of the missile defence system and said that at present this issue is under discussion. "The talks have not completed yet and therefore, there is no sense to speak of this. We are considering several potential places where the system may be located," the minister said.
The Acting Assistant Secretary for Political-Military Affairs, Stephen D Mull, at a press conference in Washington on 10 July said that the USA does not accept that Gabala is a substitute for the plans that the USA is already pursuing with its Czech and Polish allies.
Talks between the Russian and US experts with regards to a missile defence system are expected to take place at the end of July.