Manas

If bacon, lobster tail and Chicago-style steaks are your thing, the last few months have been a good time to dine out in Kyrgyzstan’s capital.

For many travelers to Kyrgyzstan, the first and last thing they see is a distant outpost of the Afghan war.

In a development that could influence Kyrgyzstan’s willingness to prolong the lease of the Manas Transit Center outside Bishkek, a US Embassy official has confirmed that a joint Kyrgyz-Russian venture is now delivering the majority of fuel consumed at the base.

Perhaps with an eye on obtaining a higher rent, Kyrgyz leaders are sending mixed signals concerning the future of an American military facility in Kyrgyzstan beyond 2014, the year the bulk of US and NATO forces are supposed to be out of Afghanistan.

With the United States and its allies preparing for the 2014 withdrawal from Afghanistan, a top British defense official who recently visited the region believes that British forces are close to securing overland transit routes via Central Asian states to extract military equipment.

Just days apart, two revolutionary processes are coming to an end in Kyrgyzstan.

A Kyrgyz-Russian joint enterprise set up specifically to corner the fuel contract at the US-operated Manas Transit Center near Bishkek will begin deliveries of aviation fuel in November.

Provisional President Roza Otunbayeva has authorized the creation of a special oversight body that will monitor how Pentagon payments for the use of the Manas Transit Center are handled.

Well-informed sources say Mina Corp, the current fuel supplier to the Manas Transit Center in Kyrgyzstan, is pulling out of the bidding for the latest fuel contract.

The Pentagon plans a major change in the way it supplies aviation fuel to the Manas Transit Center in Kyrgyzstan. The new arrangement is very bad news for the current contract holder, Mina Corp.