11 May 2013, 14:00
Part of equipment of Gabala RLS removed from Azerbaijan to Russia
Most of the property of the Gabala radiolocation station (RLS), which belongs to Russia, has already been transported out of Azerbaijan, Khalaf Khalafov, Deputy Foreign Minister told reporters on May 10.
The lease agreement of the RLS was signed in 2002 for 10 years. Russia annually paid 7 million US dollars for the lease. Since the summer of 2011, the extension of the agreement was negotiated. According to sources from the Russia's Ministry of Defence (MoD) and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA), quoted by Russian media in February 2012, Azerbaijan had asked 300 million US dollars a year, but Russia did not accept these conditions. On December 10, the Azerbaijani MFA announced the termination of the Russia's operation of the RLS.
According to Khalaf Khalafov, state commissions of Azerbaijan and Russia are working on reception-delivery of the radar station; they have already agreed on the procedure of removal of the equipment.
Mr Khalafov has noted that the commissions had conducted a full inventory of the Russian property, kept at the station, and most of it had been already delivered to Russia, the "Trend" reports.
According to the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Azerbaijan, the process of removing the property to Russia will be completed in the coming weeks, the "News-Azerbaijan" reports.
