Kyrgyzstan asks US to reconsider airbase presence

Kyrgyz President-elect Kurman Bakiyev on Monday asked the United States to reconsider the continued presence of the anti-terrorist coalition...

Kyrgyz President-elect Kurman Bakiyev on Monday asked the United States to reconsider the continued presence of the anti-terrorist coalition at the Manas airbase, near Bishkek, the capital of Kyrgyzstan.

Addressing a news conference in Bishkek, after his landslide victory in Sunday’s Presidential elections, Bakiyev said that request recently made by the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), at the Astana summit in Kazakhstan, to the United States to determine the timeframes for its airbases in central Asia, was absolutely correct.

‘‘This issue was raised at the SCO summit, since the situation in Afghanistan has changed,’’ he said.

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‘‘The situation in Afghanistan will soon stabilise. The country has had Presidential elections and is getting ready to elect a Parliament, so the question about the coalition base’s presence in Kyrgyzstan arises,’’ Bakiyev noted. ‘‘Now that the active military phase of the Afghanistan campaign is over, coalition member-states should set a deadline for withdrawing their troops from the SCO countries,’’ the SCO leaders said in a declaration adopted at the Astana summit, earlier this month.

After the SCO summit, Uzbekistan stepped up pressure on Washington to pull out its airbase at Karshi-Khanabad, set up after the launch of US-led coalition operation in Afghanistan. It also accused Washington of not paying take-off and landing fees.

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