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US Military Base to Stay in Kyrgyzstan
U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates visited Kyrgyzstan on Tuesday to secure guarantees for an American military base in the country. Kyrgyz lawmakers earlier urged the government to evict U.S. troops from the air base outside the capital of Bishkek.
U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said on Tuesday a military air base in Kyrgyzstan was necessary to support the war in Afghanistan. Last month Kyrgyz lawmakers urged the government to evict 1,200 U.S. troops from the air force base outside Bishkek.
“I think what’s important for the people of Kyrgyzstan to understand is that our use of Manas [Air Force Base] is in support of a larger war on terrorism in which Kyrgyzstan is an ally of virtually every other nation on earth,” Secretary Gates said.
“We are all working to try and prevent a resurgence of the Taliban in Afghanistan and our use of Manas is one way in which Kyrgyzstan can play a very important and constructive role in cooperation with many other nations, just not the United States,” the U.S. defense chief told reporters after meeting his Kyrgyz counterpart Ismail Isakov.
The U.S. military presence in Central Asia suffered a blow in 2005 when Uzbekistan expelled U.S. troops from a base following Western condemnation of violence to crush a revolt in the town of Andizhan.
Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiev pledged last summer to urge the Americans to give the deadline for their pullout from the country.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of June 06, 2007
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