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NEW KYRGYZ PRESIDENT URGES U.S. AIRBASE CLOSURE
PanARMENIAN.Net
November 1, 2011 - 11:29 AMT
PanARMENIAN.Net - Kyrgyzstan's President-elect Almazbek Atambayev has
called for the closure of the United States' airbase at Manas in the
central Asian republic, RIA Novosti reported.
"I don't think the base at Manas guarantees the security of
our country. I would not want to see another country carry out
a retaliatory strike against the base. A civil airport is a civil
object, and it should remain so," he said.
Kyrgyzstan "would observe all international agreements," he stressed,
but when the current Manas base agreement expires in 2014, the American
facility there should go.
Kyrgyzstan could set up a transport hub for Afghanistan for "passage
of civilian traffic, maybe together with Russia," Atambayev said.
"There is no political game here. It's not really very good to arrive
at the country's main airport and see military equipment there,"
he said at his first press conference after preliminary presidential
election results were announced on Sunday, October 30.
With 99.96 percent of the ballots counted on Sunday, Atambayev won
the election with 63.24 percent of the vote. His nearest rival was
the leader of the United Kyrgyzstan party Adakhan Madumarov, with
14.76 percent.
The Manas base was set up near the Kyrgyz capital Bishkek in 2001
in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks in America to support military
operations against the Taliban in Afghanistan. The facility remains
key to supply operations for the ongoing military campaign there.
Kyrgyz Prime Minister Omurbek Babanov has said previously that the
future of the base as a transit point for U.S. military cargo should
be decided by the Collective Security Treaty Organization, a grouping
of Central Asian states including several former Soviet Republics.
PanARMENIAN.Net
November 1, 2011 - 11:29 AMT
PanARMENIAN.Net - Kyrgyzstan's President-elect Almazbek Atambayev has
called for the closure of the United States' airbase at Manas in the
central Asian republic, RIA Novosti reported.
"I don't think the base at Manas guarantees the security of
our country. I would not want to see another country carry out
a retaliatory strike against the base. A civil airport is a civil
object, and it should remain so," he said.
Kyrgyzstan "would observe all international agreements," he stressed,
but when the current Manas base agreement expires in 2014, the American
facility there should go.
Kyrgyzstan could set up a transport hub for Afghanistan for "passage
of civilian traffic, maybe together with Russia," Atambayev said.
"There is no political game here. It's not really very good to arrive
at the country's main airport and see military equipment there,"
he said at his first press conference after preliminary presidential
election results were announced on Sunday, October 30.
With 99.96 percent of the ballots counted on Sunday, Atambayev won
the election with 63.24 percent of the vote. His nearest rival was
the leader of the United Kyrgyzstan party Adakhan Madumarov, with
14.76 percent.
The Manas base was set up near the Kyrgyz capital Bishkek in 2001
in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks in America to support military
operations against the Taliban in Afghanistan. The facility remains
key to supply operations for the ongoing military campaign there.
Kyrgyz Prime Minister Omurbek Babanov has said previously that the
future of the base as a transit point for U.S. military cargo should
be decided by the Collective Security Treaty Organization, a grouping
of Central Asian states including several former Soviet Republics.