Via turkishpress.com -
HEILIGENDAMM - President Vladimir Putin on Thursday offered to set up a joint Russian-US anti-missile base to end a crisis between the two countries as Group of Eight leaders agreed a face-saving compromise on climate change.
Putin made the startling proposal for a base to be located in Azerbaijan during talks with US President George W. Bush aimed at rescuing relations between the two countries from a post-Cold War low.
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Russia angrily opposes a US proposal to set up a missile shield in Poland and the Czech Republic and Putin had previously threatened to aim Russian weapons at European targets if the US system was deployed.
Russia says it is the target of the shield while the United States insists the system is to guard against an attack by Iran or North Korea.
Putin said he had spoken on Wednesday to the president of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev, who had agreed that the Gabalin base there could be jointly used by Russia and the United States.
Bush`s national security advisor, Stephen Hadley, said Bush had found the proposal "interesting" and wanted it referred to experts.
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This is very interesting indeed. Gates had proposed a joint US-Russia missile system in the past and the proposal wasn't taken too serious. So this is good news, I believe.
Azerbaijan is a interesting location as well. It isn't a location that Iran will be too happy about, but if it makes Russia happy...then it is in our best interest. Iran shares a border with Azerbijan. Iran has attempted to send under the radar signals to Azerbaijan...letting them know that Iran wouldn't be happy if they sided with the US against them.
So more to come...
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