Politicians say U.S. airbase closure weakens Kyrgyz independence

BISHKEK. February 4. KAZINFORM - A number of Kyrgyz politicians have said the closure of a U.S. airbase in the Central Asian country diminishes the country's independence and runs counter to its national interests; Kazinform has learned from RIA Novosti.

Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiyev said in Moscow on Tuesday he would demand the closure of the airbase, used to support antiterrorism operations in neighboring Afghanistan, citing Washington's refusal to discuss higher rental payments and its reluctance to address the 2006 killing by a U.S. serviceman of a Kyrgyz man. Kyrgyzstan's government said Wednesday it had submitted documentation on canceling the airbase agreement with the U.S. to the country's parliament for approval. The Kyrgyz government said: "Eight years have passed since the conclusion of the agreement [on the airbase in Kyrgyzstan]. The threat has been removed. State institutions have been established: the constitution adopted, the country's president elected, the government formed, that is, practically all the required conditions to ensure the stable management of the Afghan state have been created." "This is one of the reasons to terminate the agreement," the government said, adding that the "negative attitude on the part of the republic's population toward the U.S. military presence in the republic" was another reason for the move. Kyrgyz opposition politician, Miroslav Niyazov, ex-secretary of the country's Security Council, however, told journalists on Wednesday: "It is totally clear that the decision to close the airbase was not taken without Russia's participation." Niyazov called the decision "hasty" and said Kyrgyzstan has "no reliable security system of its own. I mean not only military security but also energy, financial and economic security." New U.S. President Barack Obama has announced plans to considerably increase troops in Afghanistan. The U.S. airbase was set up in 2001 as a transit point for NATO supplies to the international coalition in Afghanistan and now houses more than 1,000 military personnel. Russia backed the U.S.-led campaign in Afghanistan, but its relations with NATO have deteriorated since over the bloc's ongoing eastward expansion and more recently an armed conflict with Georgia. Russia also has a military base in Kyrgyzstan under a post-Soviet security pact. Kyrgyz political scientist Marat Kazakbayev said in turn: "The U.S. is a world power that provided huge humanitarian and economic assistance. This was good cooperation, I think the good relations between Kyrgyzstan and the U.S. will cool down, and we will immediately feel it." He said the base was, among other things, "a reliable stronghold ensuring Kyrgyzstan's national security." Meanwhile, political scientist Kubat Sultanbekov said: "Two military bases of such super powers like Russia and the U.S. being located on the territory of a small republic is unwise and presents a threat to the country." Many Kyrgyz politicians and experts have said the decision to close the base may not be the final one.