Kyrgyzstan underlines support for U.S. base
BISHKEK, KYRGYZSTAN •
The government of Kyrgyzstan assured the United States yesterday that its troops could continue using a base in the former Soviet republic until the situation stabilized in Afghanistan, but added it would not jeopardize old ties with Moscow by favouring new relations with Washington.
In a meeting with Condoleezza Rice, the visiting U.S. Secretary of State, Kurmanbek Bakiyev, the Kyrgyz President, signed a statement saying his country supported the presence of U.S.-led forces there “until the mission of fighting terror in Afghanistan is completed.”
“ We have repeatedly emphasized that the coalition base in Manas will be necessary until the situation in Afghanistan is completely stabilized,” Mr. Bakiyev told reporters after talks with Ms. Rice, who arrived in the capital Bishkek at the start of a three-day swing through the strategic region.
The assurance on the base was nothing new — Donald Rumsfeld, the U. S. Defence Secretary, received the same promise in July — but it had added importance for Washington after the decision by the hardline government of neighbouring Uzbekistan to evict U.S. forces from a base there by the end of the year.
Ms. Rice said before her visit to Kyrgyzstan that U.S. hopes of building stronger relationships with former Soviet republics in Central Asia were not aimed at undermining Russia’s longstanding influence in the region.
Mr. Bakiyev made clear that despite giving U.S. forces temporary basing rights on its soil, Kyrgyzstan remained close to Russia.
“There is no way that Kyrgyzstan will jeopardize its relations with Russia by giving preference to the U.S.,” he said. “Kyrgyzstan is committed to good and even relations with all its neighbours.”
The U. S.’ s top diplomat is scheduled to travel to nearby Afghanistan and could also make a stop in earthquake-hit Pakistan, before returning to the former Soviet Union tomorrow for visits to Kazakhstan and Tajikistan.
A senior U. S. official said Washington was reassured by Mr. Bakiyev’s promise on the airbase outside Bishkek because it meant the government that emerged after a revolt last March “now recognizes that the military operation continues in Afghanistan.”
The Shanghai Cooperation Organization, a regional grouping dominated by Russia and China of which Kyrgyzstan is also a member, has called on the United States to draw up a timetable for the withdrawal of its military personnel from the region.
However, Mr. Bakiyev assured Ms. Rice that a determination of when the situation was sufficiently stable in Afghanistan for U. S. forces to quit the base in Kyrgyzstan would be made together with the United States. “ The decision will be made only bilaterally,” he said.
Although Ms. Rice denied the United States was in geostrategic competition with Russia to gain the upper hand in Central Asia, Moscow has grown increasingly uncomfortable with the U.S. military presence in the region.
That presence was established — with the blessing of Russian President Vladimir Putin, at the time — immediately after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, as US forces prepared operations to remove the Taliban regime in Afghanistan.
Speaking to reporters aboard her plane before arriving in Kyrgyzstan, Ms. Rice acknowledged that the United States was pursuing military interests in Central Asia, but said these took second place to its political objectives in a larger U.S. strategy to counter extremism worldwide.
“What we are not willing to do is to make a choice between our objectives in terms of the immediate concerns about military access and our objectives in terms of democracy,” she said.
U. S. officials have portrayed Washington’s support for an international probe of a violent military crackdown last spring in Uzbekistan, and the subsequent order from Tashkent for closure of a U. S. military base there, as proof political and human rights objectives trump military goals.