TASHKENT, July 7: Uzbekistan intends to reassess Washington’s use of Khanabad airbase, close to its border with Afghanistan, due to the changed situation in Afghanistan and payment problems relating to the base, the Uzbek foreign ministry said on Thursday.
“The presence of the armed forces contingent at Khanabad was always... conditional on a direct connection with the conduct of the military operation in northern Afghanistan,” the foreign ministry said in a written statement.
In talks with Washington, Tashkent intends to raise a number of financial issues linked to the base, including compensation for ecological damage, payment for infrastructure improvements and the take-off and landing of US planes from the base.
“In the opinion of the Uzbek foreign ministry, these fundamental considerations should be the basis for discussion of the question of the future presence of the US armed forces contingent at Khanabad,” the statement read.
Uzbek President Islam Karimov allowed Washington the right to use the airbase in the Central Asian country in the wake of the Sept 11 attacks on New York and Washington in 2001.—-AFP
