MOSCOW, July 17: Kyrgyzstan’s newly elected President Kurmanbek Bakiyev repeated on Sunday his call for the United States to pull out of the base in his country it has been occupying since 2001.
It was established during the US-led campaign to topple nearby Afghanistan’s Taliban leadership and remains a staging post for US-led operations in Afghanistan.
Earlier this month at his first news conference since being elected Bakiyev said he was reviewing the presence of the facility, where about 1,000 troops are based.
“The situation in Afghanistan is really different (from 2001): a president has been elected, parliamentary elections have also taken place, and as the situation has changed why not envisage this question?” he said on Russian television.
“I don’t think they (the Americans) will hold it against us.”
Earlier this month the six members of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, Russia and Uzbekistan) called on the United States to set a date for withdrawal of its troops stationed in Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan.
At that meeting, “I recalled that in 2001 the American government had asked if they could establish a base on Kyrgyz territory for the struggle against terrorism,” he told the television station.
“We backed that. But to the extent that we did not know how long the war in Afghanistan was going to last, the agreement had no time limit. “And when (Russian President Vladimir) Putin raised the issue (at the summit) I said: “‘Yes, the situation is different’.”
Analysts say the presence of both Russian and US bases outside the country’s capital are symbols of a rivalry for influence in Central Asia.—AFP
