BRUSSELS, Nov 23: Uzbekistan has told several European countries that it does not want to be used as a rear base for their operations in Afghanistan, a NATO official said on Wednesday.
“NATO has not as an organisation received such a notification but some individual European nations have,” the official said on condition of anonymity, citing Germany and Spain.
The United States closed its key Karshi-Khanabad military base in Uzbekistan on Monday. The facility had been used since 2001 as a rear base by the international forces serving in Afghanistan.
In July, Tashkent gave the US military six months to leave the base after Washington called for an international inquiry into a bloody crackdown by Uzbek forces last May against an uprising in the eastern city of Andijan.
The NATO official said that the decision would not stop NATO providing logistical support to the International Security Assistance Mission (ISAF) in Afghanistan, which the alliance is leading.
“Even if alternative needs were to be found, there will be no diminishing of the capacity of NATO to support” ISAF, which comprises about 10,000 troops from 37 countries, the official said.
He said that Germany, which has a large contingent operating in the north of the country, would be worst hit.
The Spanish newspaper El Pais reported on Wednesday that Uzbekistan had sent a letter to several European countries saying that it would no longer allow their military planes to fly over its territory or have bases there.—AFP
