[Satellite News 04-28-11] The United States Export-Import Bank has voted to approve BNP Parabis’ application to finance Azerbaijan’s Ministry of Communications and Information Technologies purchase of the Azerspace/Africasat-1A satellite from Orbital Sciences, the U.S. Ex-Im Bank announced April 27.
    During a period of 26 months, Orbital Sciences will fit the satellite with 36 Ku- and C-band transponders to deliver communications services for Azerbaijan as well as Central Asia, Europe, the Middle East and Africa. The Ex-Im loan is being guaranteed by Azerbaijan’s Ministry of Finance.
    The decision to approve the financing deal came under fire from the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA) and members of U.S. Congress due to the fact that, just weeks ago, the Azerbaijan military threatened to shoot down a civilian airliner. In a statement, ANCA blasted both the U.S. Ex-Im Bank and the Obama Administration for authorizing financial support for what it believes will strengthen Azerbaijan’s military capabilities to initiate threats and acts of aggression against both Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh.
    “We are troubled that the Export-Import Bank chose to move forward with this ill-advised deal,” ANCA Executive Director Aram Hamparian said in the statement. “The Obama Administration’s business-as-usual approach undermines America’s long-term interests in stability in this region. We should not, in any way, use American resources to reward warmongering or add to the capabilities of a dictator who is openly threatening to use every asset at his disposal to renew his country’s aggression.”
    Since February, ANCA has issued a series of statements and held meetings with senior officials of the Ex-Im Bank and the U.S. State Department to voice its opposition to the deal. Work on Azerbaijan’s first satellite began in May 2010, when the nation’s Ministry of Communications and Information Technologies selected Orbital Sciences to build the spacecraft and serve as prime contractor. All major subcontract partners for Azerspace/Africasat-1a are in place. Orbital Sciences selected Spanish space development company GMV to provide the satellite’s ground system in December. Other Azerspace/Africasat-1 contracts include a long-term lease agreement with Measat for use of a Malaysian orbital slot to support the new satellite and a services deal with Arianespace to launch the communications satellite on an Ariane 5 rocket.
    The Azerbaijan government has long asserted that it would use the satellite to start developing its space industry. “The Ministry of Communications and Information Technologies and Orbital plan to establish long and fruitful connections that will strengthen Azerbaijan specialists’ technical abilities,” Azerbaijan Ambassador to the United States Donald Lu said in a statement issued in December.
     ANCA said that one of its main concerns is that the satellite deal lacks transparency. “The Bank’s written assurance to us, in the form of a letter from its President Fred P. Hochberg, that the satellite ‘lacks military capabilities’ and that it has taken ‘appropriate safeguards’ to keep this satellite out of the hands of ‘military entities,’ falls short of the level of transparency that should be required of a highly sensitive deal of this nature. We continue to call upon the [Obama] Administration to fully disclose this contract, and to publicly reveal the terms of any and all obligations entered into by either the U.S. or Azerbaijani governments regarding this transaction,” said Hamparian.