24 January 2002
Transcript: Franks Says No Permanent U.S. Military Bases in Central Asia
(Commander-in-Chief, U.S. Central Command, Jan. 24 in Tashkent) (2730)
General Tommy R. Franks, commander-in-chief of the U.S. Central
Command (CENTCOM), denied reports January 24 that the United States
has signed a long-term lease for an airbase in Uzbekistan.
"What we have said all along is that we do not anticipate a permanent
presence in any of the countries in the region, although we have
enjoyed wonderful cooperation with all the states in the region,"
Franks said during a press conference in Tashkent, Uzbekistan.
"We have not at all made any long-term arrangements for a presence
either in Uzbekistan or in any of the other states in Central Asia."
Franks said the purpose of his visit was to thank President Islam
Karimov for the opening of the Friendship Bridge, which has enabled
the establishment of a corridor through which aid can pass from
Uzbekistan into Afghanistan.
U.S. military efforts will continue to be aimed at "the destruction of
remaining pockets or pools of Taliban fighters and Al Qaida located
still inside Afghanistan" while also searching for intelligence that
might help prevent future global terrorist strikes, he said. "We don't
know how long this will take."
Franks also said that as he has traveled around Central Asia he has
stressed "our relationship with Russia and with the Russians in the
region."
Throughout the military action in Afghanistan, the United States and
Russia "have had an opportunity every day to coordinate our activities
in the region and inside Afghanistan," he said. Franks also noted
contributions Russia has made such as a Russian hospital currently
operating in Kabul.
"We have cooperated with the Russians in placing this hospital there,
and ... it is providing medical support and assistance to literally
thousands of Afghans. That sort of effort is to be greatly
appreciated. And I expect that cooperation to continue."
Following is a transcript of the press conference provided by the U.S.
Embassy Tashkent:
(begin transcript)
PRESS CONFERENCE WITH GENERAL TOMMY R. FRANKS
COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF, U.S. CENTRAL COMMAND (CENTCOM)
January 24, 2002
Tashkent, Uzbekistan
GENERAL FRANKS: Good morning. It's great to be with you again. I
always enjoy visiting Tashkent. We've been in the region since Monday
evening and have had an opportunity to visit with many of the local
leaders here in Tashkent. We've had a chance to meet with President
Karimov as well as Minister {of Defense} Gulyamov. And in fact it's a
pleasure to be back.
The purpose of my visit was to congratulate the President on the fact
that the corridor {from Termez} is now open toward Mazar-e-Sharif.
You'll recall that when I was last here in November we were hopeful
that we would be able to get the Friendship Bridge open and establish
that corridor. Now that that's done I simply wanted to come and
express my appreciation to him.
I am pleased at this point with our efforts as a part of the global
war to counter terrorism. I believe that certain aspects of this
campaign up to this point have been successful and I'm pleased with
that. We also recognize that a great deal of work needs to be done.
Certainly the Taliban has been destroyed as a functioning government
inside Afghanistan, and the terrorist organizations inside that
country have been fragmented and in a large part destroyed up to this
point.
Our efforts as we go forward will continue to be aimed at the
destruction of remaining pockets or pools of Taliban fighters and Al
Qaida located still inside Afghanistan. And of course the terrorist
organization in this region with which we remain familiar, the Islamic
Movement of Uzbekistan, continues to be on our list to be sought out.
So we will continue our efforts to destroy the remaining remnants of
that organization. Our people will continue to exploit sites inside
Afghanistan for intelligence information, which we will continue to
put together in our efforts to prevent future global terrorist
strikes. We will continue to screen and interrogate detainees for the
same purpose. And I have mentioned to all of you before, we don't know
how long this will take. I am pleased to tell you that the support we
have received across the region has been considerable. It has in fact
met our every need and we look forward to being the recipients of that
continued support.
And with that I'll pause and would be pleased to take your questions.
QUESTION FROM RADIO BBC: Today among the CIS countries it became known
that the United States and Uzbekistan have signed an agreement on the
lease of Khanabad airbase for 25 years. Is that true? Please comment
on this. The second question is: do you believe that the Islamic
Movement of Uzbekistan still threatens this country? And do you have
any information on the location of the leaders of this movement?
GENERAL FRANKS: On the second question regarding the Islamic Movement
of Uzbekistan, I think that the terrorists that we have seen centered
in Afghanistan over the past several years will remain a danger as
long as even individually they are moving in the area. And so I will
not minimize the potential danger associated with the IMU. I'll just
simply say that we will continue to rout them out until we have the
very last of them. My belief is that the leadership of the IMU has in
fact been destroyed.
On the first question, I understand about Kharshi-Khanabad. No, as a
matter of fact there is not an agreement that will permit the use of
Kharshi-Khanabad airbase for 25 years. What we have said all along is
that we do not anticipate a permanent presence in any of the countries
in the region, although we have enjoyed wonderful cooperation with all
the states in the region. I would anticipate that Uzbekistan as well
as the other nations in the region will continue to cooperate with us.
But we have not at all made any long-term arrangements for a presence
either in Uzbekistan or in any of the other states in Central Asia.
QUESTION FROM TURKESTAN PRESS: I'm glad to welcome you again to
Uzbekistan, and I would like you to comment on the plan of contacts
you have signed with the Ministry of Defense of Uzbekistan.
GENERAL FRANKS: Military-to-military relationships. What we do with
our partner and cooperating nations is, at the beginning of each year,
the two sides get together and decide what the military-to-military
exchanges, education and security assistance may be for the coming
year. And that was the document that I signed Tuesday at the Ministry
of Defense. It's a very good, a very cooperative document that sort of
provides us a roadmap for the year 2002.
QUESTION FROM KOMERSANT - RUSSIA: The first question is: how do you
comment on the leaflets that appeared in Kyrgyzstan and which call for
opposition against the deployment of U.S. military bases in the
region? The second question is: in Kazakhstan the Kazakh military has
prepared a military detachment which they proposed to the United
States military be used in the operations and to be deployed in Kabul.
Will you accept this offer?
GENERAL FRANKS: On the International Security Assistance Force offer
that was mentioned by Kazakhstan, I really don't have any information
on it because the lead nation for that force is the United Kingdom. So
I can't even speculate about the countries that have offered to
participate in that.
With respect to the question about the leaflets or pamphlets inside
Kyrgyzstan having something to do with our force positioning in the
Manas airfield, the only thing that I can say is that yesterday I
visited Bishkek. I had the opportunity to meet with President Akayev
and I also had the opportunity to visit the Lower House of the Kyrgyz
Parliament. And what I found was very uniform cooperation. I walked
away from those meetings with a sense that in fact our forces would be
very welcome inside Kyrgyzstan.
QUESTION: The first question is: please comment on the terrorist
attacks on the American Center in Calcutta, India. And the second
question is: please comment on the means of settling the dispute
between India and Pakistan over the Kashmir problem.
GENERAL FRANKS: On the subject of India and Pakistani relations I
would say that at this point I have been pleased with the work I have
seen done on both sides. I think that the dialogue between India and
Pakistan, the identification of extremists within Pakistan in
cooperation with the leadership of India makes me hopeful that that
crisis can move forward positively. With respect to the attack on
targets inside India, the only comment that I would make is that I
think that we have great confidence in the law enforcement capability
within India. We place our confidence in them and I believe the law
enforcement activity will conduct the appropriate investigation of
that incident.
And I have a brief follow-up if I may. With respect to the specific
question on Kashmir, along the line of contact and the line of
control, of course we have seen tension for many years. The only
comment that I can actually make about that is that I am hopeful that
as a part of this dialogue and discussion between India and Pakistan
that we can move something forward on the Kashmir issue in the future.
QUESTION FROM THE FINANCIAL TIMES OF LONDON: General, you said that
you are planning to rout out the IMU. I was wondering if you could go
into a little more detail on exactly what that involves. For instance
would it potentially include U.S. troop involvement in the former
Soviet Union in going after IMU potential bases here and cells and
whatnot?
GENERAL FRANKS: On the IMU, my comments will focus on Afghanistan
because I believe that's where the remnants of IMU, Al Qaida and
perhaps some other groups remain. And our operations within
Afghanistan will continue to be conducted in cooperation and in
coordination with Chairman Karzai and the interim government of
Afghanistan. The operations had to do with taking the intelligence
information that we receive, identifying potential locations of
remnants of terrorist organizations, perhaps the IMU, perhaps Al
Qaida, perhaps small numbers of hard core Taliban. Then in cooperation
with the Afghans, we move our forces to confirm or deny the presence
of these puddles or of these groups and where we find them, we take
them down.
And so that will be the approach that we take. I don't have any
comment to make about states in the region, because we have not had
requests for assistance by the coalition in the Central Asian states
and so we will just continue our cooperation as we have had in the
past until we have routed out the remainder of these people where we
find them.
And a brief follow-up to that one if I may. As I mentioned earlier, we
have cooperative relationships and military to military programs with
each of the nations in Central Asia. Those arrangements for
cooperation have to do with the sharing of intelligence. They have to
do with the sharing of training. And so these cooperative arrangements
provide opportunities for us to work with all of the military forces
in the region to provide assistance where it is requested, to enable
forces in each of the nations of Central Asia to be able to work on
the IMU problem if there is perceived to be one in any of the states
locally.
QUESTION FROM ITAR-TASS: Tuesday you signed a document with the Uzbek
military. Is it a document between Central Command and the Uzbek
Ministry of Defense? Or is it a document between the U.S. Department
of Defense and the Uzbek Ministry of Defense? Could you elaborate on
the most important articles in the document and what kind of military
cooperation is envisioned in the framework of this document for 2002?
GENERAL FRANKS: Thank you. The military cooperation document was
between the United States Central Command and the Ministry of Defense
of Uzbekistan. And described in the document are visits by the
American military to Uzbekistan for discussions and conferences with
their counterparts, as well as visits by Uzbek military to the United
States for discussions, seminars and so forth.
Also included in the Memorandum of Agreement are training events. For
example, where American small units will come and train alongside
their Uzbek counterparts on several occasions this year. Also
mentioned in the military-to-military document are opportunities for
Uzbek officers to receive training inside the United States. And
finally, there is also mentioned in the document, partner
relationships between some units in the United States and some Uzbek
units.
QUESTION FROM NOVI DIEN: Yesterday you visited Bishkek. Could you
please elaborate on the talks you had with the Kyrgyz President and
what issues were discussed during your meeting? The second question
is: Senator Daschle was visiting Uzbekistan last week and was talking
about the State of the Union address that the President will make to
Congress and the nation. Could you please explain what kind of
statement this will be?
GENERAL FRANKS: On the second question, President Bush will address a
joint session of Congress on the 29th of the month, and I honestly
have no idea what he'll talk about. I think we are all anxious to hear
it ourselves. So I really don't know what he'll say.
With respect to my meeting with President Akayev, essentially I told
him, 'thank you' for Kyrgyzstan's support of Operation Enduring
Freedom. As I had said to President Karimov, I think considerable work
has been done and I congratulated President Karimov in our meeting for
the cooperation and the support and the assistance given by
Uzbekistan.
When I was in Kyrgyzstan meeting with President Akayev I did
essentially the same thing. Kyrgyzstan has provided support, verbal
and tangible, to this operation and I very simply wanted to say thank
you and extend the appreciation of my government to Kyrgyzstan.
And one additional comment I'd like to make also. As I have talked
with my friends and professional associates across Central Asia, I
have made a point with respect to my relationship and our relationship
with Russia and with the Russians in the region. And some of my
friends have asked me if there is a competition in our relationship?
And I've offered two points. The first one is that in fact we have at
my headquarters representatives of 26 nations who provide liaison and
with whom we provide discussion every day. And one of these liaison
cells is from Russia. So as we have gone through Operation Enduring
Freedom we have had an opportunity every day to coordinate our
activities in the region and inside Afghanistan.
And I have pointed out some of the contributions the Russians have
made to the situation in Afghanistan by giving examples. One example
that I have used is a Russian hospital, which is currently operating
in Kabul. We have cooperated with the Russians in placing this
hospital there, and it's a very good thing because it is providing
medical support and assistance to literally thousands of Afghans. That
sort of effort is to be greatly appreciated. And I expect that
cooperation to continue.
And in fact this young lady has been standing here a long time, so
we'll take one last question.
QUESTION FROM BBC NEWS: Thank you. A quick question. You mentioned
earlier that you believe the leadership of the IMU had been destroyed.
I wondered if you could explain what evidence you have to support
that. In particular relating to the reported death of Juma Namangani?
GENERAL FRANKS: Perhaps I have a not very satisfying answer for you.
As we have gone through Operation Enduring Freedom we have never made
it a practice to describe the sources of information or the way we
receive, the way we process, and the way we use intelligence. So I'll
only answer your question by saying the information that I have
reflects that Namangani is dead and I'll stay with that.
Thanks to all of you for your hospitality. Thanks very much for
coming. And we'll see all of you again soon.
(end transcript)
(Distributed by the Office of International Information Programs, U.S.
Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
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