Russia and the US are working on proposals put forward by Russian president on joint use of a radar station in Azerbaijan as an alternative to US plans to build a missile defense system in Europe, Russian news agencies reported on Thursday.

 

At the present moment Russian and US experts are working on President Vladimir Putin's proposal, Boris Malakhov, deputy spokesman of the Russian Foreign Ministry, was quoted by the Itar-Tass news agency as saying.

 

"The essence of these offers is cooperation of all interested states in assessing a missile threat in the world and collective monitoring of strategic situation in missile dangerous regions with the use of information from radar stations covering these regions, in particular, the radar station in Galaba (Azerbaijan),"he said.

 

"Of course we make this work in close coordination with Azerbaijani friends," he added.

 

"A fundamental condition for the implementation of Russian proposals is abandonment of the US plan to deploy a missile defense base in Europe and the deployment of strike anti-missile elements in space," Malakhov said.

 

The results of expert work on Russian proposals will be considered at a meeting of the defense and foreign ministers of Russia and the US in October, he said.

 

Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mamedyarov told reporters in Baku on Tuesday that Russia, the US and Azerbaijan will begin consultations on the Gabala radar station in Baku in early September.

 

"We are now discussing all details to define what further steps will be taken," Mamedyarov was quoted by the Itar-Tass news agency as saying, adding that the level and concrete date of talks has to be determined.

 

Putin proposed to Bush at the G8 summit on June 7 that the US jointly use with Russia the Gabala radar base in Azerbaijan, a former Soviet republic, to replace its plan to station missile interceptors in Poland and a radar in the Czech Republic.

 

Bush described the proposal as "interesting" and said the two sides had formed a working group of experts to see how they could cooperate on missile defense.

 

(Xinhua News Agency August 24, 2007)