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#22 - JRL 2007-137 - JRL Home
Russian envoy says Qabala radar proposal "viewed favourably" by NATO
Interfax

Moscow, 19 June: Russia's permanent representative to NATO Konstantin Totskiy disagrees with media reports that NATO has rejected Russia's proposal to share use of the Qabala radar station in Azerbaijan with the USA.

"It is an incorrect assessment to say that NATO has supposedly rejected the proposal to use the radar. It was viewed favourably," Totskiy said today at a news conference in Brussels that was broadcast in Moscow.

He added that Russia's NATO partners believed the issue needed to be studied. At the same time, Totskiy said: "I don't understand the position of NATO, which is making the third positional area [of strategic missile defences] a bilateral issue".

Nevertheless, Totskiy said that "the matter has been taken up to be worked on, and I hope the problems of missile defence will continue to be discussed within the framework of the Russia-NATO council".

He also repeated the known Russian proposal to carry out a joint assessment of missile threats. "This requires expenditure, financial resources," he added.