It appears that the US government is resolved to sticking with a competitive tender plan to cover future fuel supplies at the Manas Transit Center in Kyrgyzstan, despite a Kyrgyz provisional government preference to set up a joint venture involving a state-run entity and the Russian-state-run Gazprom conglomerate.
Heading into her September 24 meeting with US President Barack Obama, Kyrgyzstan’s provisional president, Roza Otunbayeva, told EurasiaNet.org in New York that she had a “bouquet of issues” she intended to raise. Sources familiar with US diplomatic thinking, meanwhile, billed the discussions as “a substantial meeting” and “not just a photo op.”
Russian media outlets appear intent on trying to turn the US-operated Manas transit center in Kyrgyzstan into a campaign issue in the Central Asian nation’s upcoming parliamentary elections.
Jet is a one-and-a-half-year-old Harris hawk with a straightforward mission: to scare local birds away from runways at Manas International Airport outside of Bishkek. Employed by the US Air Force, operator of the Manas Transit Center, the hawk is a key component in the BASH (Bird Aircraft Strike Hazard) program, designed to stop birds from colliding with aircraft on takeoff or landing.
Red Star Enterprises Ltd. and Mina Corp, two companies at the center of a US congressional investigation into fuel contracting practices in Kyrgyzstan, have pledged to cooperate with investigators and have negotiated a document submission extension, according to a reliable source familiar with the investigation.
Three figures said to be associated with Red Star Enterprises Ltd. and Mina Corp have been subpoenaed by a US congressional committee that is investigating potential improper dealings concerning the Manas Transit Center in Kyrgyzstan.
The United States and Russia are working on a groundbreaking deal that would make Moscow the chief fuel supplier to the US-operated Manas Transit Center in Kyrgyzstan. Under the arrangement, Russia would become a “third partner” at Manas, a key logistics hub for US and NATO military operations in Afghanistan.
As southern Kyrgyzstan continues to smolder, the country’s provisional government is thinking about opening a new income stream. Provisional leaders are seeking to slap a value-added tax of 12 percent, plus excise duties, on fuel imports destined for the Manas Transit Center.
The Northern Distribution Network (NDN), a Europe-to-Asia resupply route for US and NATO forces in Afghanistan, was promoted by its architects as an economic development vehicle that could promote cohesion among Central Asian states. Reality is proving vastly more problematic than American war planners anticipated, however.
