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ANKARA: Azerbaijan-Georgia Military Cooperation And Turkey's Influen

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  • ANKARA: Azerbaijan-Georgia Military Cooperation And Turkey's Influen

    AZERBAIJAN-GEORGIA MILITARY COOPERATION AND TURKEY's INFLUENCE (2)

    Today's Zaman, Turkey
    May 30 2013

    ZAUR SHIRIYEV
    [email protected]

    As discussed in my previous column, the political-military realities
    of the post-2008 period saw changes in the military strategies of
    Baku and Tbilisi, with each country redefining its priorities. These
    changes have demonstrated some key differences between the policies
    pursued by each government. The main difference is that Azerbaijan,
    with its huge military budget, is better equipped to purchase military
    equipment from foreign companies or countries. However, due to
    restrictions on arms sales, Baku can only trade with a few partners,
    mainly the former Soviet countries (Ukraine, Russia and Belarus),
    though it also has a strong partnership with Israel in this field.

    Unlike Baku, Georgia's smaller military budget has restricted the
    development of its defense industry, and it also has doubts about
    cooperating with Israel; both of these factors have led Tbilisi to
    look for new opportunities.

    In this regard, both countries focused on the development of their
    defense industries and bilateral cooperation in this sector for the
    following key reasons:

    >From a strategic perspective, both countries would like reduce their
    dependency on foreign military suppliers and better provide for their
    armies, both in terms of military readiness and modernization. The
    development of their defense industries may allow them to sell their
    own weapons to foreign countries; they may be able to start trading
    with former Soviet Union (FSU) and Central Asian countries.

    >From a military perspective, the short-term aim for both countries
    in terms of the defense industry is to produce drones, tanks and
    different kinds of artillery.

    >From an intelligence perspective, Tbilisi, with its more modernized
    military intelligence service, could provide military cadre training.

    The two countries can also share military intelligence more frequently
    and cooperate to combat common military/non-military threats; their
    2002 mutual defense agreement stressed this point.

    Therefore, since 2009, defense industry cooperation between Azerbaijan
    and Georgia has been improving. The reason for this is that since 2008,
    new opportunities have arisen. Prior to 2008, Baku had long demanded
    that Tbilisi stop letting Armenia repair its battle tanks and other
    armored techniques at a Russian munitions factory in Tbilisi.

    Once Georgia cut ties with Moscow and agreed, high level ministry
    of defense visits from Azerbaijan to Georgia commenced and both
    sides reached a compromise. This stimulated the development of their
    defense industry cooperation. The initial agreement was for Baku to
    help modernize Georgia's tanks and aircraft repair plants.

    But defense cooperation between the two countries is likely to become
    stronger, especially after Georgia's Defense Minister Irakli Alasania
    took office and declared that one of the country's priorities will
    be enhancing and strengthening its defense cooperation with close
    strategic allies, namely Azerbaijan and Turkey. On March 18, Alasania
    visited Baku and signed a bilateral cooperation plan for 2013. The
    details were not disclosed but cooperation is likely to include:

    First of all, upgrading the military factories in both countries
    and jointly producing equipment. Georgia plans to produce modernized
    versions of the SU-25 aircraft at the Tbilisi Aerospace Manufacturing
    Company (TAM) and Tbilisi has spoken to Azerbaijan about the financing
    of the project and the establishment of joint production. Azerbaijan
    purchased 13 attack aircraft from Georgia in 2002-2003, and it is
    possible that Azerbaijan will buy Tbilisi Aerospace Manufacturing
    Company (TAM) in the near future.

    Secondly, it is in the interests of both sides to improve Azerbaijan's
    defense industry with the aim of jointly producing armored vehicles and
    equipment. However in the last three years, Azerbaijan's cooperation
    with different foreign countries has opened up opportunities for
    Georgia to acquire modern military technologies with the help of
    Azerbaijan.

    Thirdly, both countries will cooperate with Turkey, which is much
    more accomplished in the defense industry. Turkey's indigenous
    defense programs encompass the full spectrum of military operations
    and include major areas across land, air, sea and space. As stated
    by Georgia's defense minister, Tbilisi is interested in trilateral
    format cooperation. Meanwhile, defense cooperation between Turkey and
    Azerbaijan dates back further than Turkish-Georgian ties but for both,
    cooperation with Turkey in the defense industry marks a new page in
    their partnership.

    According to military sources and Jane's Defense Weekly's reports,
    Turkey is developing its defense industry in many areas. Its most
    ambitious defense program is its indigenous fighter project F-X,
    through which the country aims to eventually replace the single engine
    Lockheed Martin F-16 fighter aircraft in the Turkish Air Force (TAF)
    service with a nationally designed and built platform. Additionally,
    In January, Turkey decided to abandon its plans to buy an off-the-shelf
    system for its T-Loramids surface to-air missile (SAM) program and
    is now seeking to co-develop a SAM system as part of the country's
    ambition to become self-sufficient in defense technologies.

    Beyond the possible trilateral format cooperation in defense
    industries, all sides agreed to jointly strengthen military exercises.

    Since September 2006, under the framework of a NATO program,
    trilateral cooperation between Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey in
    pipeline security has taken place annually. Moreover, under the
    trilateral format, Azerbaijani, Georgian and Turkish special forces
    conducted the Caucasus Eagle 2012 military exercises for the first
    time and will conduct these every year. The next steps seem to be
    Azerbaijan and Turkey's attendance at a joint US-Georgian military
    exercise in 2014, which Georgia's defense minister suggested joining
    during his visits to Baku and Ankara.

    In this regard, the urgent need for an improvement in the trilateral
    format of cooperation in the defense industry and military training
    could be strengthened in the near future if the countries sign a
    defense industry cooperation agreement at the trilateral level.

    http://www.todayszaman.com/columnistDetail_getNewsById.action?newsId=316955

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