U.S. Trains Azerbaijani Agencies

Three U.S. federal agencies are offering WMD nonproliferation training this week for roughly 100 Azerbaijani government and law enforcement officials, the Azeri Press Agency reported (see GSN Oct. 13, 2005).

The training session organized by U.S. Customs and Borders Protection, the Defense Department and the FBI began Monday and is scheduled to end Friday. It is aimed at helping Azerbaijani government personnel to discover, halt and investigate smuggling of unconventional weapons and materials.

The U.S. Embassy in Azerbaijan said the training was developed in coordination with NATO’s Partnership for Peace program to strengthen the country’s land and sea borders (Azeri Press Agency, June 7).