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Kyrgyzstan Denies Talks With US on Air Base
BISHKEK - Kyrgyzstan is not holding any talks with the United States on allowing it to keep its air base in the Central Asian state, Prime Minister Igor Chudinov said on Wednesday.
A U.S. ground staff member of the Manas Air Base near Bishkek stands at the tarmac of the airfield, February 12, 2009. (REUTERS/Shamil Zhumatov) The United States said on Tuesday it had made progress in trying to persuade Kyrgyzstan not to close the Manas air base which supports military operations in Afghanistan.
"No talks are being held," Chudinov told reporters. "No official has been authorized (to negotiate on the matter)."
The former Soviet republic said in February it had decided to shut the base after securing pledges of $2 billion in aid and credit from Russia, which sees the region as part of its sphere of influence and resents the U.S. military presence there.
About 1,000 U.S. military personnel are based at Manas, along with smaller contingents of French and Spanish troops.
The base is a major hub for moving military personnel and supplies in and out of Afghanistan, where the United States is deploying tens of thousands of extra troops this year in an effort to fight the Taliban.
(Reporting by Olga Dzyubenko; Writing by Olzhas Auyezov, edited by Richard Meares)
9 Comments so far
Show AllFighting the Taliban by producing more? I thought we were after Bin Laden.
Somebody's lying!
I know the Kyrgyz quite well, and believe they are firm on showing the US the door.
The USAF is being quite stupid in repeating over an over again that they will/are holding talks, and expecting a different outcome.
I hope those guys have great security or "Prime Minister Igor Chudinov found dead from an apparent suicide. The prime Minister appears to have killed himself by a bullet to the back of the head.... in other news the US air base will remain open for at least the next 20 years."
if the USA EVER tried that -- over there in the Central Asian countries that KNOW a great deal about covert actions and double-dealings....the USA isn't going to get away with it.
they won't really be able to stop "investigations" run BY the former soviet republics seeing that the USA is putting its foot in their mouths in ways they already know about - from being russia's former satellites...and will simply play the cards THEY have which the USA does NOT possess : they OWN the oil and gas and geostrategic importance...and it is the USA that is the ALIEN culture..and THAT is a HUGE difference that will work against the USA, ESPECIALLY of it tries that assassination game....
i would predict that if the USA tried that , it won't be maintained for even beyond a year and the result in the aftermath will be a national (i mean the citizenry showing they can be a threat to the US installed regime for cooperating with "aliens" in interfering with their sovereignty for CLEAR reasons that are for US INTERESTS) -
and in the end the USA will lose EVERY card it ever held and
as Patrick Buchanan said:
":we SHOULD GET OUT OF THIS EMPIRE BUSINESS AND GET OUT OF THOSE LANDS.........BEFORE THEY KICK US OUT".
THE USA TRIES that -- it should remember it has already FAILED -- although it took nearly a century -- in South America after all the dictatorships , right wing, that IT installed against the INEVITABLE rise of national interests by the majority of people .
what's the USA going to do.........keep trying to "influence" events worldwide with RESENTFUL citizens of other countries who , more and more , SEE THE USA as a TYRANNICAL , EXPLOITATIVE
"foreigner" for what it REALLY has been after all in lands and regions FAR FAR away from ITS own neighbhorhood?
the USA -- through direct manipulations such as through CIA assassinations in CENTRAL ASIA is going to CHALLENGE centuries of cultures with ASSASSINATIONS of their own?
the USA is dreaming if it tries THAT tack.
it is trying to play games of power in lands and regions it does NOT belong to . THAT is its greatest mistake...even if for a century - there was such a thing America itself self-styled as "the american century".........through plots and assassinations.....
that century is OVER!
the Funny thing is: as the USA tries to "collect" "allies" in central asia........they are clearly seeing that their traditional, historical and future ties remain and always WILL with their own eastern, central asian neighobrs. for all their rivalries and counter-rivalries -- that is a FACT that USA will NEVER overcome as the greater obstacle , the impossibility for its "global hegemon" DELUSIONS.
already -- china is not only making deals with these very same central asian resource rich countries -- it has already spread its "wings" over almost the entire INdochinese subcontintent and other far eastern asian nations through at least an 84 BILLION economic assistance package...
with NO military bases involved!
and the USA is playing the game of SOLDIER?
what a laugh!
it's soooooooooo.....19th century.......
the problem with the USA is:
it is trying to operate on 19th century IMPERIAL Delusion principles -- using 21st century MILITARY power - while IMPLODING from its 20-th century "unearned and unjustified dollar hegemony" ( HENRY CK LIU : "The History of Dollar Hegemony as Imperialism" Asiatimesonline ) that is itself unravelling BIG TIME....and will over time, be REJECTED as OUTMODED as "capitalism out-performed communism"...when it turned out the Dollar Hegemony BASED capitalist "triumph" was
really nothing more than GIANT PONZI SCHEME designed to -- as General Smedley Butler, US MARINE, 1933 speeches after a 30-year career as "Our big money's, big finance's, big corporations' MUSCLE MAN ENFORCER"....
"to gather as much of the world's resources unto ourselves at the expense of others".
and the World KNOWS it and is beginning to find ways to REJECT IT!
lol.
Oceania's worst nightmare is a Eurasian-Eastasian alliance that leaves Oceania isolated.
Teddy mentions China… It appears that Orwell’s prediction is finally coming true, over 60 years later, that there would be three super powers:
teddy:
“[C]hina is not only making deals with these very same central asian resource rich countries -- it has already spread its "wings" over almost the entire Indochinese subcontintent and other far eastern asian nations…”
rtdrury:
“Oceania’s worst nightmare is a Eurasian-Eastasian alliance that leaves Oceania isolated.”
But I disagree with rt drury’s suggestion that Russia and China would become allied against Orwell’s Oceania: England, Canada and the US. (perhaps NATO is the fulfilment of his Oceania prediction) China is becoming a super power in its own right, and will eventually dwarf Russia. (and the US, I’m afraid)