MOSCOW, Sept 22: Russia signed a deal on Monday to open its first new military base since the collapse of the Soviet Union, setting it in volatile Central Asia where Moscow ruled until 11 years ago.

The air base will be in Kant in mountainous Kyrghyzstan, just 250 kms from the Chinese border, and reverses Moscow’s decade-long gradual withdrawal of troops from bases in former Soviet republics and other old allies.

“It is the first and so far the only purely Russian military base that we have opened since the...existence of the Russian Federation,” Defence Minister Sergei Ivanov said after the signing ceremony at the Kremlin.

Both Russian President Vladimir Putin and Kyrgyz President Askar Akayev attended.

Ivanov said the new base would serve as a springboard for any large-scale military operation that Russia might need to launch in the “stable but difficult” ex-Soviet Central Asia.

Russian troops at Kant will almost rub shoulders with Nato pilots stationed at the nearby Manas airfield, which US-led coalition forces use for operations in Afghanistan.

Some 300 pilots and personnel will be permanently stationed there, serving a fleet of Sukhoi-27 multi-purpose fighter jets, Sukhoi-25 frontline bombers and helicopter gunships. But the landing strip is long enough to accommodate transport planes.

“If necessary, we will be able to quickly step up our military presence there,” Ivanov said.

Its main purpose, however, will be to provide air support for Russian troops in the region, like the 201st infantry division stationed in neighbouring Tajikistan on the border with Afghanistan.—Reuters