U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates meets today in Washington with his Russian counterpart, Anatoly Serdyukov, ahead of which he gave an interview to Interfax. They dealt with several issues in the EurasiaNet region: Gates said the U.S. was "very interested" in using, jointly with Russia, the Gabala radar station in Azerbaijan; that Russia is being "enormously helpful" with regard to the Northern Distribution Network; complains that some in Congress are pushing back against U.S. plans to supply Russian helicopters to Afghanistan; and says the U.S. is being "careful" with regard to security cooperation with Georgia. Some excerpts:
Q.: Can you be more specific about what extent Russia helped to work on Northern Distribution Network in Afghanistan?
A.: Well, we have negotiated contracts, and at this point, I think, we have sent something like 20,000 containers across the Northern Distribution Network, and a very high percentage of those have come across Russia. It‘s enormously helpful to us. It‘s financially beneficial to Russia because these are commercial contracts. But there‘s no question that this network has become important for us. About 50% of the sustainment supplies for us in Afghanistan now go across the Northern Distribution Network, and I think it‘s an example of cooperation. We‘re obviously interested in buying MI-17 helicopters. They‘re well-suited for Afghanistan. Afghans are familiar with them, know how to fly them, comfortable with them, and we‘d like to pursue that. We‘re getting, frankly, some pushback here in the United States by American helicopter manufacturers wondering why we‘re interested in buying Russian ones. The buy that we have in mind is pretty limited, but we‘ll have to work our way through the politics of that.
Q.: When do you think the decision about that could be taken?
A.: I honestly don‘t know. It really depends on being able to get the money from the Congress...
Q.: Is there a chance to create mutual ABM with Russia? And are there any technical abilities of Russia that are of interest to the United States, for interest, Qabala station? Can it be used?
A.: We have been very interested in the Qabala radar. We‘ve had conversations about it. I think we‘ve sent technical experts there to examine the radar. We‘ve talked about a data center, a data exchange center in Moscow where all of this information on missile launches could be shared. So I think that there are a number of areas where we could work together...
Q.: The United States is supplying Georgia with weapons and it‘s a matter of big concern for Russian Federation. What do you think about the future of weapons supplies to Georgia? Will the United States continue to provide weapons, or what‘s your expectation?
A.: Well, what I would say is, first of all, every sovereign country has the right to provide for its own defense. We have been, I think, careful in what we have provided to Georgia. We also are interested in providing Georgia with the means by which they can help us in Afghanistan, and so a good part of the training and other things that we‘re doing with the Georgians are because they have been so willing to make a contribution of considerable importance to our efforts in Afghanistan.
Joshua Kucera, a senior correspondent, is Eurasianet's former Turkey/Caucasus editor and has written for the site since 2007.
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