Azerbaijan, Georgia Say Not In Missile-Defense Talks

(RFE/RL) March 2, 2007 (RFE/RL) -- Officials in Azerbaijan and Georgia say they are not currently in talks with the United States over placing parts of a missile-defense system on their territory, RFE/RL's Azerbaijani Service reported.

"There has been no request to Azerbaijan and no negotiations are being conducted to that effect," Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry deputy spokesman Khazar Ibrahim told RFE/RL in Baku today.

AP quoted Georgian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Nato Chikovani as saying that Georgia has not received a request from Washington to deploy missile-defense components on its territory.

U.S. Air Force Lieutenant General Henry Obering, director of the U.S. Missile Defense Agency, said on March 1 that the United States wants to base an antimissile radar in the Caucasus.

Meanwhile, German Defense Minister Franz-Josef Jung has urged more talks within NATO on the U.S. missile-defense plans.

The United States has already formally requested to place a radar base in the Czech Republic and missile interceptors in Poland.

(with material from AP)