U.S. military officials optimistic about future relations with Kyrgyzstan
BISHKEK. June 13 (Interfax) - Plans to shut down the U.S. Transit Center at Manas International Airport near Bishkek are still on the agenda of negotiations between the U.S. and Kyrgyz authorities, the center's newly appointed commander John Millard said on Thursday.
Millard said that he personally hoped that relations between the U.S. and Kyrgyzstan would develop further.
A decision on the center's use after NATO forces leave Afghanistan in 2014 has not been made yet, he said.
The U.S. and the government of Kyrgyzstan continue investigating the crash of the KC-135 tanker aircraft on May 3, 2013, Millard said. A decision has already been made to conduct a cleanup operation at the crash site because the U.S. treats environmental protection as a priority, the commander said.
Millard, however, refused to say whether or not compensation would be paid to villagers whose pastures and other assets were damaged by the falling airplane parts.
According to the U.S. Embassy, the Transit Center contributed $78 million to the Kyrgyz economy and purchased $116.7 million worth of aircraft fuel from Kyrgyzstan from January to the end of May 2013.
The U.S. Transit Center opened at Manas International Airport outside the Kyrgyz capital Bishkek on July 14, 2009, replacing a U.S. airbase that was set up in Kyrgyzstan in December 2001 to support the international coalition forces deployed in Afghanistan. The Kyrgyz authorities renounced the airbase agreement with the U.S. in February 2009.
The Transit Center, which has been working to support the International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan, accommodates almost 1,000 U.S. soldiers, as well as several cargo airplanes and tanker aircraft.
At the end of May 2013, the Kyrgyz government forwarded a bill renouncing the Transit Center agreement with the U.S. to parliament. Two factions of the Kyrgyz parliament have already approved the document.
Kyrgyzstan wants to renounce the five-year agreement, which was signed on June 22, 2009, in mid-July 2014.
