Kyrgyzstan Allows Limited U.S. Access

Source: New York Times

MOSCOW— Kyrgyzstan, which four months ago said it would close an American air base central to the NATO mission in Afghanistan, appeared Tuesday to partially reverse its decision.

The government, after heavy lobbying by American officials, reached a tentative arrangement that would allow the American military to have a limited presence at the Manas air base.

Kyrgyz officials said the United States could use the base in Central Asia as a transit center to supply NATO forces in Afghanistan. Official details of the agreement were not immediately available, but it appeared that the United States had sharply increased the rent that it paid to avoid complete closure.

In February, President Kurmanbek Bakiyev gave the United States six months to vacate the airbase, which has been used since 2001 as a refueling stop and transit hub for about 15,000 troops and 500 tons of cargo a month headed for Afghanistan.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/24/world/asia/24base.html

"News reports have cited Kyrgyz officials as saying that only nonmilitary supplies would be permitted to move through the facility. It was unclear how many American troops would be allowed to remain at Manas."

Which supplies would be authorised for transit was part of the original issue when use of the base was withdrawn.

IMO.

$300M in rental fees to a billion in rental fees.

When Russia offered $2 Billion for the base, the US/Bush Admin was an idiot to refuse to re-negotiate the $30 million "aid" bid.

http://eng.24.kg/politic/2009/06/23/8328.html

Crisis has played its political role in case with the U.S. airbase Manas in favor of the West, member of the Russian Duma’s committee on international affairs Ruslan Kondratov told the news agency REGNUM in comment to the newly entered agreement between the governments of Kyrgyzstan and the U.S.



“America has mentioned that carry on using the Manas airbase will stimulate investments into Kyrgyz economy,” said Kondratov. More to that, the Russian daily wrote the other day that the Unites States is ready to pay Kyrgyzstan one billion dollars to continue using the Manas air base, adding the payment is likely to be disguised as foreign investment from Turkey. This offer played a crucial role for Kyrgyzstan’s decision about keeping the base open and transforming it into the transit traffic center.

“It is clear that the change of the name will in fact change nothing and statements of the Kyrgyz authorities about allowing the Americans to transit only non-military cargo to Afghanistan is rather doubtful,” he said.

The politician believes that Kyrgyzstan is again turning its political vector towards the West. “NATO troops have been transferring military cargo through Manas during all these years. The decision of Kyrgyz authorities to shut down the base helped it to win credits from Russia. However back than it was rather clear that Pentagon is unlikely to leave the post-soviet area so easily,” the Russian lawmaker said.

As the news agency 24.kg earlier reported Tuesday, June 22, the United States and Kyrgyzstan signed a deal on the transit of non-military cargo to Afghanistan that will effectively keep open a U.S. airbase Bishkek had ordered closed. Under the deal the status of the airbase has changed. The rent for the base -now called a "transit centre" - will be more than tripled, but limits are to be imposed on its use for military operations.