US, Kyrgyzstan reach deal on using air base

[March 19, 2010]  BISHKEK, Kyrgyzstan (AP) -- The United States has agreed to more than triple the rent it pays for use of a key air base in Kyrgyzstan to ship non-lethal military supplies to Afghanistan under a deal approved Tuesday by a Kyrgyz parliamentary committee.

The accord to use the Manas base as a "center of transit shipments" comes four months after the Central Asian nation ordered the eviction of U.S. troops. It falls short of U.S. hopes of maintaining the base as a full-fledged military facility.

But it would provide a much-needed logistical support base as the U.S.-led coalition ramps up operations against increasingly bold Taliban and al-Qaida fighters in Afghanistan.

Kyrgyz Foreign Minister Kadyrbek Sarbayev told lawmakers that under the new one-year deal, rent will increase to $60 million per year from the current $17.4 million.

Washington will also pay $37 million to build new aircraft parking slots and storage areas, plus another $30 million for new navigation systems.

The deal now goes to the full parliament, where approval is possible as early as the end of the week.

Officials at the U.S. Embassy in the Kyrgyz capital, Bishkek, said they couldn't immediately comment on the deal.

President Kurmanbek Bakiyev stunned Washington in February by announcing that U.S. forces would be evicted from Manas, saying Washington wasn't paying enough and citing other concerns.

In addition to the annual rent, the base also contributes $150 million to the local economy every year through service contracts and aid packages, and around 600 locals are employed there, according to American officials. U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates had said Washington would be willing to pay more for use of the base, within reason.

With the Aug. 18 eviction date looming, however, Kyrgyz officials have suggested in recent weeks they might reconsider the decision.

The breakthrough appeared to stem in part from a personal message sent by President Barack Obama recently. According to Kyrgyz officials, Obama thanked Bakiyev for Kyrgyzstan's support of U.S.-led military operations in Afghanistan.

Sarbayev told lawmakers that Kyrgyzstan was worried about the deteriorating situation in Afghanistan and Pakistan, which he said could destabilize the entire Central Asia region. That is a stark reversal of earlier Kyrgyz statements in which authorities cited improving security in Afghanistan as a reason for closing Manas.

Afghan leader Hamid Karzai met with Bakiyev at a summit in Russia last week to issue a personal plea for coalition forces to continue using Manas.

The base's outgoing commander said the past year has been the busiest for the base because of the situation in Afghanistan. Col. Christopher Bence said last week that 189,000 personnel had been sent to and from Afghanistan through Manas in the past year. There were 6,370 flights from the base and it refueled aircraft with 204 million pounds (92 million kilograms) of fuel, he said.

At the same time, militants have stepped up attacks on the main route for U.S. military supplies to Afghanistan through Pakistan -- although the military maintains this has little impact on its operations.

Strictly offensive missions may be phased out under the new agreement, though observers doubt that the United States would wholly agree with that.

"At the moment, they are only talking about a transshipment of nonmilitary goods," said Paul Quinn-Judge, of the International Crisis Group. "But I would not be surprised ... if there was eventually a cosmetic agreement that allowed the U.S. to fly its tankers out of there,"

U.S. forces have had access to Manas outside Bishkek since 2001. The base became even more important to the Afghan war effort after neighboring Uzbekistan evicted U.S. troops from a base there.

Bakiyev's eviction announcement in February came hours after Moscow, which has long been wary of the U.S. presence in Central Asia, pledged more than $2 billion in aid, loans and investment for Kyrgyzstan. That led U.S. officials to suggest that Moscow pressured Bakiyev to kick out the Americans.

Russia also has an air base in Kyrgyzstan.

Analysts and opposition politicians have said in recent weeks that Russia might be linking its backing for the U.S. in Kyrgyzstan to other nettlesome issues in U.S.-Russian relations, such as NATO expansion into former Soviet republics or U.S. plans for placing a missile defense shield in Central Europe.

"This decision tells us that the Kyrgyz government is not in charge of its own foreign policy but is just a plaything in the hands of the Kremlin," Bakyt Beshimov, leader of the opposition Social Democrat party faction, told The Associated Press on Tuesday.

[Associated Press; By LEILA SARALAYEVA]

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