US bases in Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan not indispensable: Pentagon
Given that the United States has attempted takeovers in both Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan and in doing so has soured relations between the United States and these two countries and that both countries are SCO members it is hard to see how the SCO bullied them.
If the SCO backs the United States out of Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan they will gain prestige on the world stage.
-Am
WASHINGTON (AFP) Jul 15, 2005 US bases in Uzbekistan and in Kyrgyzstan are not "critical" to US interests although Central Asia is of importance, Pentagon spokesmen said Thursday, after the countries pointed to the bases' future closure.
"But the installations -- none of them are so critical to our operations that we couldn't do fine and work around them if we weren't operating from those places any longer," Pentagon spokesman Lawrence Di Rita said.
"There's no single installation anywhere in the world that we must have and can't live without, so we'll make adjustments if we're not going to use those installations going forward," he said.
Later, at a news conference for foreign journalists, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Richard Myers, underlined Central Asia, and Uzbekistan's importance to the United States.
"Central Asia is important to the United States for lots of reasons, not just for operations in Afghanistan... Security and stability in Central Asia is an important concept, and those that can bring security and stability ought to be welcomed in Central Asia. Uzbekistan is a very important country over there," said Myers.
The Pentagon made its comments after Kyrgyzstan interim President Kurmanbek Bakiev Monday said his nation wanted to discuss a US withdrawal as mentioned in a declaration a week earlier by the so-called Shanghai group.
General Myers said the Shanghai group's communique was not "particularly useful". "It looks to me like two very large countries were trying to bully some smaller countries. That's how I view it," Myers said.
The six-member Shanghai Co-operation Organization -- China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan -- last week issued a statement calling on Washington to set a date for US troops' withdrawal from the two nations' territory.
And Uzbekistan's foreign minister last week underlined that the US base on its territory was only a temporary arrangement as part of the US-led military operation in Afghanistan, and that it would end alongside Operation Enduring Freedom.
Washington is also under pressure to exercise sanctions against Uzbekistan if it fails to probe a crackdown earlier this year on demonstrators in Andijan in which between 200 and 700 people died.
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