Hopes for improved military ties between nations

12/15/2001

Associated Press

BAKU, Azerbaijan -- Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld told the president of Azerbaijan Saturday that the United States hopes to improve military ties with his nation at the crossroads of Central Asia, the Middle East and Russia to help in the fight against terrorism.

"The stability in this region is as important to us as it is to you," Rumsfeld told President Geidar Aliev of Azerbaijan at a meeting in the capital of Baku. "We are all concerned about the problems of terrorism, drug trafficking and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction."

The three small nations where Rumsfeld is traveling -- Azerbaijan, Armenia and Georgia -- are interested in broadening military relationships with the United States. All have offered to let U.S. warplanes fly over their territory during the fighting in Afghanistan.

The United States has had sanctions against Azerbaijan in place since 1992. They prohibit any military cooperation because of the fighting between Azerbaijan and neighboring Armenia over the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh, a predominantly ethnic Armenian enclave within Azerbaijan.

Despite a 1994 cease-fire, sporadic violence still occurs there.

The Bush administration has asked Congress to grant a waiver to the sanctions which would allow President Bush to provide military assistance to Azerbaijan if that would help the fight against terrorism or help the nation protect its borders.

The sanctions also prevent military aid to Armenia, and Bush wants to lift that ban as well,

Rumsfeld said he hoped Congress would approve the waiver soon, so the two nations could begin discussing what types of military cooperation would he helpful.

Aliev said his country was anxious for the sanctions to be lifted.

"Azerbaijan has always been against terrorism," the president told Rumsfeld. "We are willing to continue our cooperation in this field."

Oil is not on the agenda of these meetings, U.S. officials said. Azerbaijan has vast oil reserves and the United States has supported the building of a pipeline from there to Turkey, avoiding Iran.

Rumsfeld also will visit Uzbekistan, where some U.S. troops engaged in the Afghan war are based, and then go on to a NATO defense ministers' meeting in Brussels, Belgium. At the NATO meeting, he was to meet with officials from Russia, the Ukraine, Turkey, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan.

"The events of Sept. 11 have shifted the priorities of an awful lot of countries in the world and their perspectives about the United States and about the problems of the world," Rumsfeld said. "And it does offer an opportunity for us to ... reconnect with those countries."