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U.S. transit center will have military status - Kyrgyz MP

RIA Novosti

14:0625/06/2009 BISHKEK, June 25 (RIA Novosti) - A U.S. transit center at an airport near the Kyrgyz capital, Bishkek, will have the status of a military facility, a Kyrgyz parliament member said on Thursday.

The Kyrgyz parliament ratified on Wednesday agreements concluded by Kyrgyzstan and the U.S. on June 22 on the establishment of a transit center at Manas airport to provide support for operations conducted by U.S.-led international forces in nearby Afghanistan.

"This center will have a military status...and will be established at the former U.S. airbase," said Iskhak Masaliyev, the leader of parliament's communist faction.

In February, the ex-Soviet Central Asian state ordered the shutdown of the base, which has been used to support U.S.-led operations in Afghanistan since 2001. The decision was widely seen as being influenced by Russia, which had just granted Kyrgyzstan a large financial aid package.

Meanwhile, another Kyrgyz parliament member said the 1,500 U.S. troops currently deployed at the airbase would be withdrawn on previously agreed terms.

"The U.S. military contingent at the Manas base will leave the republic by August 18," said Kabai Karabekov, deputy head of the Kyrgyz parliament's international committee.

The MP added that the new transit center would be staffed with civilians and military security personnel.

The new agreement has been signed for a 1-year term and envisions annual U.S. payments of $60 million to the Kyrgyz budget for the use of the center - almost a triple of the former amount of $17.4 million.

Washington will also allocate $36.6 million for the construction of additional aircraft parking and storage facilities, and $30 million for new navigation and traffic control equipment at the Manas airport.

The two countries also agreed to take joint measures to ensure the security of the airport perimeter and to form checkpoints.

The new deal has provoked an angry reaction from Moscow.

Business daily Kommersant quoted a Russian Foreign Ministry source as saying Kyrgyzstan had played a "mean trick" in deciding to let the United States keep using the airbase. He warned there would be "an appropriate response" from Moscow.

President Kurmanbek Bakiyev's decision in February to close the base, which is staffed by about 1,500 personnel, was seen as a victory for Russia in its rivalry with the West for influence in the region.