US to stay in Kyrgyzstan

The United States and Kyrgyzstan have reached an agreement over rent for the air base the US currently uses in Kyrgyzstan. The president of Kyrgyzstan had previously made noises that he would ask for $200 million from the US, a ten-fold increase. Well, the US got a bargain, only $150 million.

The United States and Kyrgyzstan resolved a payment dispute that had threatened the future of the U.S. military base in this ex-Soviet republic, the U.S. Embassy and the Kyrgyz government said Friday.

Both sides signed a protocol of intentions affirming that Washington will "compensate equitably the Kyrgyz government and Kyrgyz business for goods, services and support of U.S. operations," a joint statement released by the U.S. Embassy said.

"The U.S. base is staying in Kyrgyzstan. We've agreed on long-term, strategic cooperation with the United States," Kyrgyz Security Council secretary Miroslav Niyazov, who signed the protocol, told The Associated Press.

Neither Niyazov nor the statement specified how much the United States would pay the impoverished nation of 5 million people for continued use of the base, set up in 2001 to support operations in Afghanistan. The statement stressed the issue "should be viewed in the context of the larger, robust relationship."

The United States expects to provide Kyrgyzstan with $150 million "in total assistance and compensation over the next year," subject to approval from Congress, the statement said. The U.S. has given Kyrgyzstan more than $850 million in aid since its independence following the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991, it said.

Kyrgyzstan had proposed that Washington pay $200 million a year - a tenfold increase - for use of the Manas Air Base, but talks had dragged on. In May, President Kurmanbek Bakiyev threatened to expel U.S. forces altogether.

After being pushed out of Uzbekistan, this base is the one remaining base for the US in Central Asia, a key area considering all the turmoil in the region.

Still, all is not smiles and hugs in Kyrgyzstan.

A diplomatic row is developing in Kyrgyzstan, where the US Embassy is resisting Bishkek’s effort to expel two American diplomats for supposedly having "inappropriate" contacts with local non-governmental organizations. The dispute has potentially far-reaching geopolitical implications given that Kyrgyzstan is home to the sole remaining US military base in Central Asia.

On July 11, Kyrgyz officials announced that the two US diplomats were no longer welcome in Bishkek. A Kyrgyz Foreign Ministry statement said the diplomats had engaged in "repetitive [acts of] interference in the interior affairs of the state, incompatible with their diplomatic status and recognized norms of international law." It added that the expulsion order was "based on established fact."

The US Embassy in Bishkek is vigorously contesting the allegations as "simply not true." An embassy statement asserted that the Kyrgyz action was designed "to intimidate embassies and silence the voice of civil society."