Expert: Baku chosen rightfully for meeting of heads of NATO military committee and Russian General Staff - COMMENT

Baku. 8 September. REPORT.AZ/ Baku for the meeting of the chief of the Russian General Staff, Valery Gerasimov and the Chairman of the NATO Military Committee, Peter Paul, was chosen because it is politically neutral and convenient from the logistics point of view. Alexander Karavaev, political scientist and deputy director at the Center for CIS studies at Moscow State University told Report, commenting on the meeting held on the eve.

" Ankara could be an alternative to Baku, where Gerasimov already held meetings with his Turkish counterpart, being under the personal sanctions of the EU and the US. But Baku was chosen rightfully as the most favorable from the point of view of political neutrality and convenience for logistics - a short flight from Moscow and a high-quality level of servicing such events. Let's not forget that Gerasimov is in Baku for the third time, "A. Karavaev said.

The political scientist recalled that, during his first visit to Baku in April 2014, V. Gerasimov held a meeting of the Committee of the Chiefs of Staff of the Armed Forces of the CIS countries, where important issues of joint air defense, agreements on humanitarian demining, the exchange of geospatial information and the use of satellite communication systems for military use, as well as military planning issues until 2020.

The second visit took place in February 2017, where he met with the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the US Armed Forces, General Joseph Dunford.

Alexander Karavaev

"Prior to this visit, there have been no public meetings and no real consultations between Russian and American military officials appointed by the newly elected president of the United States. These meetings began in Baku. Later it became known that Gerasimov and Dunford discussed the creation of four security zones in Syria, "the expert said.

Characteristically, continued A. Karavaev, that in this period Gerasimov was in Yerevan only once - in April 2016 at a meeting of the Military Committee under the CSTO Defense Ministers Council.

Speaking about the relationship between Russia and NATO, the political scientist stressed that the cold war between them hit, first of all, the technical structures that carry out the communication mission. "The meeting of the NATO-Russia Council (NRC) from the moment of freezing took place only at the ambassadorial level," A. Karavaev cited.

Referring to the conflict between Russia and NATO in the South Caucasus region, the expert recalled that Georgia is already integrating into NATO, Armenia is a Russian forward stronghold and CSTO participant, and Azerbaijan is a buyer of military equipment and a reliable economic partner, as well as a participant in several Russian military communications programs region of the CIS countries.

"Azerbaijan and Armenia in this regard are the Russian rear area, which Moscow needs to preserve from external erosion. The problem is that there is a massive conflict between Russia's friends. This of course weakens the potential for the deployment of Russian economic projects, "A. Karavaev said.

Speaking about the cooperation of Azerbaijan and Russia in the sphere of military-industrial complex, the expert pointed out that Baku is interested in continuing purchases of military equipment.