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Kyrgyzstan moves to shut US air base

(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-02-05 07:51

Kyrgyzstan's government submitted a draft bill to parliament Wednesday that would close a US base that is key to the American military campaign in Afghanistan.

The move came a day after President Kurmanbek Bakiyev said the base would be shuttered and shortly after the Central Asian nation secured billions of dollars in loans and aid from Russia, which resents the American presence in a country that Moscow regards as part of its traditional sphere of influence.

US soldiers take part in an exercise at the US airbase in Kyrgyzstan. Kyrgyzstan's government on Wednesday approved the closure of a US airbase on its territory used as a vital supply route for Western military operations in Afghanistan. [Agencies]

The possibility poses a serious challenge to the new US administration and President Barack Obama's plan to send up to 30,000 more American forces into Afghanistan this year.

In a visit to the base last month, General David Petraeus, commander of US operations in Afghanistan and Iraq, said that Manas would be key to plans to boost the US troop presence in Afghanistan.

Earlier yesterday, the US Embassy in Kyrgyzstan said the US had received no formal notification of the closure.

Talks are due to continue on keeping the air base in the country, despite the Kyrgyz president's announcement, the embassy said in a statement.

The government said the decision to order the closure of the Manas base was made because the base has fulfilled its purpose of supporting military actions in Afghanistan.

In Afghanistan, "state institutions have been created, a Constitution adopted, a president was elected, and government was formed. All the necessary conditions are in place for the stable functioning of a government in Afghanistan," the statement said.

The Kyrgyz government also cited growing popular discontent with the US military presence among its motivations for the closure. It also criticized US obstruction of the investigation into the fatal shooting in December 2006 of a Kyrgyz truck driver by a US serviceman during a security check at the entrance to the air base.

Officials have not specified when the closure might take place, but the agreement under which the base was established in 2001 specifies that the United States must be given 180 days notice.