Senior Airman Adam Leland marshals in a KC-135 Stratotanker to a stop earlier this month at Manas Air Base, Kyrgyzstan. The Kyrgyz parliament ratified an agreement June 25 that allows the United States military to keep using the base.
Heck and its only an extra 43 million! Anyway this is a good thing and should allow the United States an easier time to move men and material. But talk about down to the wire negotiations, just last week we were ready to leave the base. Conisdering it was alleged pressure from Moscow which I do wonder what has changed?
WASHINGTON (June 25, 2009) – The Kyrgyz parliament Thursday ratified an agreement between the United States and Kyrgyzstan to extend U.S. access to Manas Air Base, a key logistics hub that supplies troops in Afghanistan, Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman confirmed.The agreement must now go to Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiev for signature.
“It’s not a done deal until the president signs it,” Whitman said. “Out of respect for their processes, we’ve been trying to give them the time and space to give this the consideration that it needs.”
The agreement provides for a transit center at Manas International Airport, operated by the United States, to provide logistical support to coalition forces in Afghanistan. About 15,000 troops and 500 tons of cargo move through the base every month, and the base’s importance has increased as more troops deploy into Afghanistan.
Officials said on background that the United States agreed to pay $60 million a year to use the base, up from $17.4 million under the previous arrangement.Today’s vote, if approved by the president, reverses Kyrgyzstan’s previous decision to end the arrangement the United States and Kyrgyzstan entered three years ago that gave the U.S. annual renewal rights through July 2011. Kyrgyzstan’s foreign ministry notified the U.S. Embassy in the Kyrgyz capital of Bishkek in February that it had six months to leave Manas.
15,000 troops a month is pretty damn significant. The post has a report as well:
The United States has agreed to pay $180 million to Kyrgyzstan to keep open the last remaining U.S. air base in Central Asia, a key refueling point for U.S. aircraft in NATO operations against Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan.
Washington had been haggling to keep the base open since February, when the former Soviet republic announced its closure after securing pledges of $2 billion in aid and credit from Russia.When asked about the deal, a Kremlin official accompanying Russian President Dmitry Medvedev in Egypt told Reuters that Kyrgyzstan had agreed its decision with Moscow.
"Kyrgyzstan agreed its decision (on the base) with Russia," the source said. "We support all steps aimed at stabilizing the situation in Afghanistan."But Russia's Kommersant newspaper quoted an unidentified Russian diplomat as saying that Moscow felt it had been tricked by Kyrgyzstan over the base and that Russia would make an "adequate response" to the deal.
"The news about keeping the base was a very unpleasant surprise for us -- we did not expect such a trick," the diplomat was quoted as saying by Kommersant."The real character of the U.S. military presence in Central Asia has not changed, which goes against Russian interests and our agreement with the Kyrgyz leadership," the Russian diplomat was quoted as saying.
Kyrgyzstan's ruling party said on Wednesday it had approved the agreement with the United States to keep the Manas air base open."Kyrgyzstan can not step aside from fighting terrorism," said Kabai Karabekov, a member of Ak Zhol party led by President Kurmanbek Bakiyev. Karabekov said the deal would probably be approved by parliament on Thursday.
Russia doesn't sound to pleased about this, not that one should lose sleep over the Putin Regime.
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