By RIA Novosti
Moscow : Russian and US experts accompanied by Azerbaijani officials will visit Tuesday 6,000 km range Gabala radar in Azerbaijan, to consider its joint use for monitoring the region, a senior Russian military official said Saturday.
“Following three months of work, meetings and briefings where various proposals were considered, we will proceed to action on Sep 18,” said Major-General Alexander Yakushin, first deputy chief of the Russian Space Troops.
The US said in January that it was planning to deploy components of its global anti-missile defence system in the Czech Republic and Poland to avert possible strikes from “rogue states,” such as Iran and North Korea.
But Russia, already unnerved by NATO expansion to former Warsaw Pact member states, has condemned the plans as a threat to national security and a destabilizing factor for Europe. Moscow warned that its response would be commensurate and effective.
At the G8 summit in June, President Vladimir Putin offered the US use of the Gabala radar station as a compromise solution in the ongoing dispute. The radar is located near the town of Minchegaur, 120 km (75 miles) from the capital Baku.
The official of the Russian Space Troops said that the major goal of the visit to the Gabala radar would be to demonstrate to US officials that the radar could be used jointly for detecting possible Iranian missile launches.
The US delegation will include 10 high-ranking officials from the Department of Defence, radar experts and representatives of the US embassy in Azerbaijan.