Kyrgyzstan 'to stay as is'

2005-03-25 11:27

Bishkek - Kyrgyzstan does not plan to call into question the presence or status of US and Russian military bases despite the change in power there, the new Kyrgyz acting head of state and government said Friday.

"Kyrgyzstan is not planning to review its previous international engagements," Kurmanbek Bakiyev, the opposition leader designated by parliament as the Central Asian state's interim president, told reporters.

"This applies to the air bases of the anti-terrorism coalition and the Russian air base at Kant," Bakiyev said.

The Russian base at Kant, inaugurated personally by President Vladimir Putin in October 2003, was the first military facility set up by Moscow in any former Soviet republic since the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union.

It was located at the site of a one-time Soviet air base that had been empty since the early 1990s and was regarded as a counter-presence to a new air base set up in 2002 by the US-led anti-terrorism coalition after the September 11 attacks.

The fate of both bases was called into question by the sudden collapse of the regime led by Askar Akayev, whose whereabouts were still unconfirmed on Friday.

US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said on Thursday while on a visit to Guatemala that the political turmoil in Kyrgyzstan should not have an impact on the US troop presence there.

"I'm confident that there'll be no issue with respect to US forces," Rumsfeld said.

The Collective Security Treaty Organisation, a new body grouping Russia and five former Soviet republics including Kyrgyzstan, meanwhile planned to meet Friday in Moscow to examine the situation in Bishkek, the military news agency Interfax-AVN reported.

"Instability in Kyrgyzstan can undermine security throughout the Central Asia region," the agency quoted an unnamed source with the organization as saying ahead of the meeting.

- SAPA