Kyrgyz Officials: Let's Renegotiate US Air Base Deal

Kyrgyzstan is seeking to renegotiate the terms of its leasing arrangement with the United States, under which American forces are stationed at an air base outside of Bishkek.

Kyrgyz Parliament Speaker Marat Sultanov held talks on February 1 with US officials in Washington, seeking ways to ease bilateral tension related to the American military presence in the Central Asian country. The visit also gave Sultanov a chance to offer an insider's perspective on Kyrgyzstan's recent political infighting.

Sultanov met with officials at the State Department and the Pentagon, as well as members of congress. "It goes without saying that there are some frictions about the coalition base at Manas," Sultanov said February 1, during a public appearance at the Central Asia-Caucasus Institute at the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies.

The United States established the Manas base during the aftermath of the September 11 terrorist tragedy, and the facility provides support for ongoing US and coalition military operations in Afghanistan. [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive]. Over the past year or so, the base has become a source of increasing tension between the Kyrgyz and US governments, underscored by contentious negotiations last summer over the renewal of the lease. In the end, Washington agreed to a massive hike in the leasing fee. [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive].

Since those negotiations, the base has been involved in a string of incidents. In September, a near calamity occurred when a Kyrgyz passenger jet clipped a US KC-135 tanker on takeoff, losing parts of a wing. But the airliner was able to make an emergency landing safely. Then, in December, bilateral relations hit another speed bump when a Kyrgyz citizen was shot and killed by an American soldier at a base checkpoint. [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive].

"We discussed openly and clearly the problems that we have today," Sultanov told EurasiaNet. "We say that the agreement needs to be revised, because the situation is different now."

Sultanov said Kyrgyzstan is not demanding that American troops leave the base, but noted that the recent shooting incident and the near-crash made it necessary to renegotiate the terms of the lease agreement. "We mentioned these incidents openly and clearly," Sultanov said, referring to his talks with US officials. "Let the American side make inferences from these incidents