It looks like the United States is going to stay in Kyrgyzstan to Russia’s great disappointment. The government of the former Soviet nation in Central Asia has changed its mind about the withdrawal of US troops from the airbase at Manas Airport.
The dispute about the fate of the US airbase at Kyrgyzstan’s Manas, which plays a very important role in terms of maintaining NATO troops in Afghanistan, continues. The government of the Asian nation previously decided to close the base and passed the adequate law on April 2 of this year.
However, it transpired yesterday that the US troops are not going anywhere. They will keep the base if it is going to be used solely for the delivery of cargoes to Afghanistan. The governments of Turkey and Afghanistan addressed to Kyrgyzstan with a suggestion, which the poor nation could not decline: a billion dollars of investments in the country’s economy in return to the promise to keep the Manas base.
The Manas base is 23 kilometers far from the Kyrgyz capital, Bishkek. The base is located on the territory of the international airport that bears the same name. US troops appeared at the base in the beginning of 2002, after Washington and Bishkek signed the lease agreement in December of 2001. Spanish and French troops appeared at the base later.
The USA was paying a relatively small amount for the use of the base in Kyrgyzstan – only $2 million a year. For your information, the USA pays a lot more for the lease of other less important bases. Other countries may charge the United States for one single landing or takeoff of an airplane. The price may vary between $5-14 thousand.
The Manas airbase was primarily used to station C-17 Hercules transport planes and KC-135 refueling aircraft to service the needs of NATO troops in Afghanistan. The base gained even more importance in the autumn of 2005 after the United States ruined its relations with Uzbekistan and was forced to pull out from the airbase at Karshi-Khanabad.
The friction began in May 2006, when Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiyev demanded the USA and its allies should pay a much higher price. The parties agreed on $150 million a year.
The situation took a different turn when a US military man shot a Kyrgyz national, an employee of the base, on December 6, 2006. About a week later, the Parliament of Kyrgyzstan demanded the conditions for the US military presence in the nation should be revised.
Russia interfered in the matter of the Manas airbase in Kyrgyzstan two years later. Russia offered a two-billion-dollar loan to the nation and asked the government of the nation to close the base in return.
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