*Sources: DTN News / Defense Media / AFP
(NSI News Source Info) BISHKEK, Kyrgyzstan - June 26, 2009: A new agreement that allows the U.S. to retain a key air base in Kyrgyzstan will still let it ship military cargo as it did before, a senior U.S. official told AFP on June 25. 
US welcomes Kyrgyz base agreementThe United States on Tuesday welcomed a deal with Kyrgyzstan on the transit of supplies to Afghanistan that will effectively keep open a US airbase that Kyrgyz authorities had ordered shut. "We're happy about the agreement," State Department spokesman Ian Kelly told reporters. The Central Asian state had thrown a wrench into US President Barack Obama's plan to intensify the campaign against the Taliban when it ordered the closure of the Manas airbase, a key transit point for Afghanistan operations. But Kelly said: "I don't have the details of... what was spelled out financially in the agreement," when asked to confirm whether the United States was now paying three times as much as before. Kyrgyz Foreign Minister Kadyrbek Sarbayev said Washington would pay Bishkek 60 million dollars per year for renting the base, a significant increase on the previous annual rent of 17.4 million dollars. The deal involves non-lethal supplies like building materials, food and medicine, clothing and water, officials said. Bishkek had long complained that it was not receiving a fair rent for Manas, which also serves as the ex-Soviet republic's main international airport. The United States would also pay Kyrgyzstan more than 36 million dollars for improvements in infrastructure at Manas and 30 million dollars for new navigational equipment, Sarbayev said. On top of that, Washington pledged 20 million dollars for development in Kyrgyzstan; 21 million dollars for fighting drug traffickers; and 10 million for fighting terrorism, he said. Sarbayev called the deal "temporary" and said it would be in effect for a period of one year. The Kyrgyz parliament was expected to vote Thursday on ratifying the deal. Manas airbase is used to ferry tens of thousands of troops in and out of Afghanistan each year and also hosts planes used for the mid-air refuelling of combat aircraft.
The official, speaking on the condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the issue, said that despite reports to the contrary, the U.S. air base at Manas would continue to be used to send military cargo to Afghanistan.
"It still will allow us to transit the kinds of cargo with logistical support and personnel that we need," he told AFP on the sidelines of a NATO regional security summit being held in Kazakhstan's capital Astana.
"It's a broad umbrella and it includes what we have been doing under the previous agreement."
Kyrgyzstan - an impoverished Central Asian state - changed course this week after ordering the U.S. base to close in February, a decision that would have been a blow to U.S. efforts in Afghanistan to defeat the Taliban.
Under the agreement, which was ratified by the Kyrgyz parliament June 23, Washington will more than triple the rent it pays for the base as part of a financial compensation package worth about $177 million.
Kyrgyzstan had long complained that the rent it was receiving for the base was too low.
The key functions of the Manas Air Base are the ferrying of tens of thousands of troops in and out of Afghanistan each year and the hosting of planes used for the mid-air refueling of combat aircraft.
Under the new agreement, the U.S. official said, those operations would continue, effectively putting to rest months of diplomatic wrangling as Washington sought to firm up its Afghan supply routes.
A majority of 75 lawmakers in the 90-member Kyrgyz parliament voted to let the U.S. maintain a "transit center" at the air base, which sits just outside the capital Bishkek.
None voted against the agreement, which was signed by U.S. and Kyrgyz officials earlier this week.
Since the agreement was announced, Kyrgyz officials have publicly insisted that it amounts to a base closure and that from now on Manas will only be used for the transit of "non-military" goods.
"This is no longer a military airbase, the coalition soldiers must leave now. The dismantling of the base infrastructure can begin," said Kabai Karabekov, a lawmaker from the country's ruling Ak Zhol party.
"This is nothing more than a corridor for transit," he added, speaking after Thursday's ratification vote.
But despite Karabekov's comments about evicting soldiers, the agreement allows U.S. personnel to remain and Kyrgyz officials have said they will be permitted to carry weapons.
And in fact, the agreement places no restrictions on what U.S. forces may ship through it.
The U.S. government and its personnel may bring "any form of personal property, equipment, provisions, materials, technology" into and out of Kyrgyzstan, according to the text ratified by parliament.
Moreover, U.S. flights into and out of Manas may not by be searched by Kyrgyz authorities, the agreement says.
Kyrgyzstan announced that it would evict the U.S. air base in February, on the same day that Moscow promised more than two billion dollars in loans and aid to the ex-Soviet republic.
Moscow has long complained about the presence of U.S. military bases in Central Asia, which it says lays within what President Dmitry Medvedev has called Russia's privileged sphere of influence.
US welcomes Kyrgyz base agreementThe United States on Tuesday welcomed a deal with Kyrgyzstan on the transit of supplies to Afghanistan that will effectively keep open a US airbase that Kyrgyz authorities had ordered shut. "We're happy about the agreement," State Department spokesman Ian Kelly told reporters. The Central Asian state had thrown a wrench into US President Barack Obama's plan to intensify the campaign against the Taliban when it ordered the closure of the Manas airbase, a key transit point for Afghanistan operations. But Kelly said: "I don't have the details of... what was spelled out financially in the agreement," when asked to confirm whether the United States was now paying three times as much as before. Kyrgyz Foreign Minister Kadyrbek Sarbayev said Washington would pay Bishkek 60 million dollars per year for renting the base, a significant increase on the previous annual rent of 17.4 million dollars. The deal involves non-lethal supplies like building materials, food and medicine, clothing and water, officials said. Bishkek had long complained that it was not receiving a fair rent for Manas, which also serves as the ex-Soviet republic's main international airport. The United States would also pay Kyrgyzstan more than 36 million dollars for improvements in infrastructure at Manas and 30 million dollars for new navigational equipment, Sarbayev said. On top of that, Washington pledged 20 million dollars for development in Kyrgyzstan; 21 million dollars for fighting drug traffickers; and 10 million for fighting terrorism, he said. Sarbayev called the deal "temporary" and said it would be in effect for a period of one year. The Kyrgyz parliament was expected to vote Thursday on ratifying the deal. Manas airbase is used to ferry tens of thousands of troops in and out of Afghanistan each year and also hosts planes used for the mid-air refuelling of combat aircraft.
The official, speaking on the condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the issue, said that despite reports to the contrary, the U.S. air base at Manas would continue to be used to send military cargo to Afghanistan.
"It still will allow us to transit the kinds of cargo with logistical support and personnel that we need," he told AFP on the sidelines of a NATO regional security summit being held in Kazakhstan's capital Astana.
"It's a broad umbrella and it includes what we have been doing under the previous agreement."
Kyrgyzstan - an impoverished Central Asian state - changed course this week after ordering the U.S. base to close in February, a decision that would have been a blow to U.S. efforts in Afghanistan to defeat the Taliban.
Under the agreement, which was ratified by the Kyrgyz parliament June 23, Washington will more than triple the rent it pays for the base as part of a financial compensation package worth about $177 million.
Kyrgyzstan had long complained that the rent it was receiving for the base was too low.
The key functions of the Manas Air Base are the ferrying of tens of thousands of troops in and out of Afghanistan each year and the hosting of planes used for the mid-air refueling of combat aircraft.
Under the new agreement, the U.S. official said, those operations would continue, effectively putting to rest months of diplomatic wrangling as Washington sought to firm up its Afghan supply routes.
A majority of 75 lawmakers in the 90-member Kyrgyz parliament voted to let the U.S. maintain a "transit center" at the air base, which sits just outside the capital Bishkek.
None voted against the agreement, which was signed by U.S. and Kyrgyz officials earlier this week.
Since the agreement was announced, Kyrgyz officials have publicly insisted that it amounts to a base closure and that from now on Manas will only be used for the transit of "non-military" goods.
"This is no longer a military airbase, the coalition soldiers must leave now. The dismantling of the base infrastructure can begin," said Kabai Karabekov, a lawmaker from the country's ruling Ak Zhol party.
"This is nothing more than a corridor for transit," he added, speaking after Thursday's ratification vote.
But despite Karabekov's comments about evicting soldiers, the agreement allows U.S. personnel to remain and Kyrgyz officials have said they will be permitted to carry weapons.
And in fact, the agreement places no restrictions on what U.S. forces may ship through it.
The U.S. government and its personnel may bring "any form of personal property, equipment, provisions, materials, technology" into and out of Kyrgyzstan, according to the text ratified by parliament.
Moreover, U.S. flights into and out of Manas may not by be searched by Kyrgyz authorities, the agreement says.
Kyrgyzstan announced that it would evict the U.S. air base in February, on the same day that Moscow promised more than two billion dollars in loans and aid to the ex-Soviet republic.
Moscow has long complained about the presence of U.S. military bases in Central Asia, which it says lays within what President Dmitry Medvedev has called Russia's privileged sphere of influence.
No comments:
Post a Comment