23 June 2009
Kyrgyzstan agrees deal to keep crucial US airbase open
Kyrgyz government U-turn sees Manas airbase, used to support troops fighting in Afghanistan, kept open
US attempts to support troops fighting in Afghanistan were boosted today when Kyrgyzstan announced it had reached a deal with the White House to keep a vital US military base open.
The central Asian republic had announced that it was closing the US Manas airbase, near its capital, Bishkek, at the end of August.
Today, however, the Kyrgyz government performed a U-turn and said it had reached a new agreement with Washington.
Under a one-year deal, the US has agreed to more than triple the rent it pays for the base from $17.4m (£10.6m) to $60m.
Washington will also pay $37m to build new aircraft parking slots and storage areas and a further $30m for new navigation systems, officials in the capital, Bishkek, said.
Today's deal followed speculation that the Kyrgyz government had agreed to close the base under pressure from Russia.
Moscow is known to be unhappy at the US's military presence in central Asia, and Kyrgyzstan's president, Kurmanbek Bakiyev, revealed he was shutting Manas after Moscow promised a $2bn loan.
Some analysts suggested the base was a bargaining chip in a broader strategic dialogue between the US and Russia, encompassing the Pentagon's controversial missile defence shield in central Europe, the expansion of Nato into Ukraine and Georgia and other touchy issues for the Kremlin.
Today, however, one expert said that Kyrgyzstan was not interested in the US-Russian relationship, but simply wanted more cash.
"Kyrgyz officials have emphasised in private, quite convincingly, that there was no ideology involved," said Paul Quinn-Judge, the central Asia project director of the International Crisis Group.
"They [the Kyrgyz] are not pro-US or pro-Russian. They simply want a good deal."
He pointed out that much of the money promised by Russia as credits was unlikely to ever materialise, saying: "The relationship with Russia is not as close or obedient as it might seem from outside."
Under the new agreement Washington will no longer be allowed to use the base, near Bishkek, as a fully-fledged military facility.
Instead, it will be deemed a centre for transit shipments, but according to Quinn-Judge the US will almost certainly continue to use it as a military hub and for the refuelling of fighter aircraft.
"My working guess is that, essentially, the base changes its name to a resupply facility but all the operations continue roughly as before," he said.
"We are merely talking about a change in nomenclature. It's a face-saving formula that satisfies both sides."
Today's breakthrough appeared to stem in part from a personal message sent by the US president, Barack Obama, to Bakiyev, thanking him for his cooperation on Afghanistan, the Associated Press reported.
Afghanistan's president, Hamid Karzai, had also heaped pressure on Bishkek to keep the base open.
The deal is a relief for Obama, who would have faced a major logistical headache if Kyrgyzstan had gone ahead with the Manas closure plan.
Obama has announced plans to build up US troop numbers in Afghanistan, possibly doubling numbers to 60,000 this year.
The US military's traditional supply route, via Pakistan's tribal areas and the mountainous Khyber pass, has become increasingly vulnerable to Taliban attack.
In recent months Nato has signed a series of bilateral deals with Afghanistan's central Asian neighbours to allow the shipment of non-lethal cargo across their territory.
But the Manas base plays a vital role in efforts by US-led forces to contain a summer insurgency by a resurgent Taliban in south and south-central Afghanistan.
Last week the base's outgoing commander said the past year had been its busiest because of the situation in Afghanistan. Colonel 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 refuelled aircraft with 92m kg of fuel.
Kyrgyzstan, meanwhile, is in deep economic trouble. The small country faces rising unemployment, a growing trade deficit, and is struggling to pay its gas and electricity bills.
The normally disunited opposition has got its act together and now threatens Bakiyev.
A U.S. Air Force C-17 transport plane in the snow at Manas Air Base, 2006 / Then Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld visiting Manas Air Base on April 14, 2005
