Foreign Correspondence

[Amaunet]

Russia may take over U.S. Uzbek airbase
By UNITED PRESS INTERNATIONAL
Published August 3, 2005


TASHKENT, Uzbekistan -- Uzbekistan has demanded that the U.S. vacate its Karshi-Khanabad air base within 180 days. Rossiiskaiia Gazeta reports that it is possible that the base and its infrastructure may be subsequently leased to Russia.

The Pentagon paid Uzbekistan's $50 million dollars annually to use Karshi-Khanabad, and obviously was planning to be there for a long time. The Pentagon restored the old airfield from the ground up, investing several dozen million dollars in upgrading the old soviet airfield's infrastructure.


After the May 13 shootings in Andijan, Uzbek-U.S. relations nose-dived, with the Bush administration subsequently supporting an independent international inquiry into the Andijan tragedy, while Moscow and Beijing firmly supported the Karimov administration's version of events.

Karimov rejected demands for an international inquiry and on July 29 formally gave the U.S. 180 days to evacuate the facility. In the short term the closure of the Karshi-Khanabad air base, loss of jobs and U.S. money will damage the Uzbek economy.

Shortly before Karimov evicted the U.S. he paid a visit to Beijing, which offered Uzbekistan $1.5 billion in credit. The Chinese offer however is transparently designed to access to Uzbekistan's oil and gas resources.

In early July Moscow and Beijing initiated a discussion of U.S. military bases in Central Asia at the Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit, which subsequently issued a statement questioning the continued U.S. military presence in Central Asia.

Analysts now speculate that Moscow might take over the Karshi-Khanabad base. In the next few months Uzbekistan will conduct joint exercises with the Russian military in the biggest maneuvers since the collapse of the USSR in 1991.





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