20 February 2009
United States Seeks to Salvage Air Base Agreement in Kyrgyzstan
Lease termination complicates international effort in Afghanistan
Washington — As Kyrgyzstan moves to shut down a key air base supporting international efforts to stabilize Afghanistan, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates says the United States is open to further negotiations, but also is exploring alternative supply routes in the region.
“I continue to believe that this is not a closed issue and that there remains the potential at least to reopen this issue with the Kyrgyz and perhaps reach a new agreement,” Gates said at a gathering of NATO defense ministers in Krakow, Poland, February 20. “If we are not able to do that on reasonable terms, then we are developing alternative methods of getting resupply and people into Afghanistan.”
Since 2001, the United States has paid $17.4 million a year to lease the Manas Air Base from the Kyrgyz government. Approximately 1,000 military and civilian personnel from the United States, France and Spain — as well as a hundred more local Kyrgyz citizens — operate the 15-hectare (37-acre) former Soviet facility. The base hosts military fuel tanker aircraft and moves more than 500 tons of cargo and more than 15,000 people into and out of landlocked Afghanistan every month, according to the U.S. Department of Defense.
Kyrgyzstan, itself a target of extremist militants operating along its shared borders with Uzbekistan and Tajikistan in the late 1990s, was an early supporter of international efforts to oust Afghanistan’s Taliban regime following the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States. Since the 2005 Tulip Revolution, the Kyrgyz government has sought increased compensation for the base, located 35 kilometers from the capital, Bishkek.
While U.S. and Kyrgyz leaders agreed to extend the lease in 2006, Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiyev, at a press conference with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev February 9, announced his intention to terminate the lease. Bakiyev made good on his pledge February 20, ratifying an eviction measure approved by 78 of 81 parliament members. The final step will be to give official notice to vacate the base within 180 days.
Gates said the United States is open to discussing a fee increase to salvage the deal, but has been weighing alternatives. Russia has agreed to allow transport of nonmilitary goods through its territory, and General David Petraeus of U.S. Central Command has been meeting with several of Kyrgyzstan’s neighbors in an effort to diversify shipping options. Later on February 20, Rear Admiral Mark Harnitchek of the U.S. Transportation Command told reporters that Tajikistan and Uzbekistan have authorized shipments of nonmilitary NATO cargo through their territories.
“Manas is important,” Gates said, “but it is not irreplaceable.”
Another key supply route through the Khyber Pass in Pakistan’s tribal regions has come under increasing pressure as militants step up attacks on Pakistani convoys transporting goods into Afghanistan. As much as 80 percent of equipment, food and medical supplies for U.S. and NATO forces are currently shipped through Pakistan.
The announcement comes as the Obama administration consults with allies to formulate a reinvigorated international effort to help Afghans rebuild and take back their country from a resurgent Taliban, al-Qaida, and associated militants operating from safe havens along the Afghan-Pakistan border.
President Obama’s special representative to Afghanistan and Pakistan, veteran U.S. peacemaker Richard Holbrooke, recently returned from consultations with leaders in the region, and Obama ordered 17,000 additional soldiers and Marines deployed to Afghanistan to bolster the 41-nation NATO-led International Security Assistance Force. (See “Obama Orders First New Troops to Afghanistan.”)
Afghanistan topped the agenda in Krakow, where alliance ministers continued preparations for the NATO 60th Anniversary Summit, to be hosted by France and Germany in April. Gates welcomed additional new commitments from Germany and Italy of up to 1,100 more troops for Afghanistan, while up to 20 members of the 26-nation alliance pledged further military and civilian contributions toward rebuilding the shattered South Asian nation.
“If other countries are unable to strengthen their military commitment, but they are willing to make a contribution on the stability side — on the development, governance side — those contributions would be very welcome,” Gates said.
What actions should President Obama consider to help bring security and stability to Afghanistan? Comment on America.gov’s blog.
