Kyrgyzstan: Why did French and Spanish military withdraw from Manas airbase?
The military from Spain and France left Transit Center (TC), located in Manas International Airport near Bishkek, the capital of Kyrgyzstan.
It has to be mentioned that TC is the new name of international coalition airbase that supports military operations in Afghanistan.
After the departure of 50 Spanish and 60 French military there are only US soldiers remaining in the airbase. Thus, TC became hundred percent American airbase. To tell the truth, it was named so earlier although the airbase hosted the soldiers from another 11 member-countries of anti-terrorist coalition.
The agreement on establishing the transit center was signed by President Kurmanbek Bakiev on July 7, 2009 although earlier in February he had announced the intention to let NATO forces leave the country. Kyrgyzstan reasoned its decision by the fact that US compensation for Manas airport area rental is not enough and that situation in Afghanistan improved; besides, American soldiers are not under jurisdiction of Kyrgyz courts since they have diplomatic status. In the spring of this year the agreement with USA and 11 anti-terrorist coalition countries on placement of military units was denounced. Nearly unanimous decision of the parliament denounced all agreements with Australia, Spain, Denmark, Italy, the Republic of Korea, Netherlands, Norway, New Zealand, Poland, Turkey and France.
Later on Kurmanbek Bakiev mentioned in the interview that Kyrgyzstan was ready for new negotiations, considering new format and payment conditions. It was followed by the letter from Hamid Karzai, the President of Afghanistan, addressed to Kyrgyz leader, where he asked to help stabilize situation in Afghanistan. Bakiev "forgot" about his plan to exclude the Western military from Kyrgyzstan in exchange for US promise to pay $60 million per year and changing the airbase status into "Transit Center". Finally, "thank you" message from US leader Barack Obama, addressed to Bakiev, concluded the complex maneuver over Manas.
It was expected that after the establishment of TC and conceptual agreement on keeping American presence Kyrgyz government would formally renew the agreements with all the rest anti-terrorist coalition members, participating in military operations in Afghanistan.
Withdrawal of Spanish and French military looks even stranger after the fact then on October 5 new draft agreement between the governments of Spain, France and Kyrgyzstan was approved in the special committee of Jogorku Kenesh (the parliament of Kyrgyzstan).
At the session of the parliamentary committee for international affairs and inter-parliament cooperation Ruslan Kazakbaev, the Deputy Foreign Minister, informed that the negotiations with the representatives of France and Spain were to take place on October 9. It appears that these negotiations failed since Kyrgyz Foreign Ministry would never present new draft agreements to the parliamentary committee if Kyrgyzstan did not want to keep Spanish and French military in TC.
According to the procedures, the projects, approved by dedicated committee, must be considered in the general session of the parliament, but on October 13 the duration of stay of French and Spanish soldiers in Kyrgyzstan expired.
Ferghana.Ru directed questions to the Kyrgyz Foreign Affairs Service. However, Foreign Ministry requested the postponement of official answer and then ignored our inquiry, arguing that there are no employees, responsible for this matter. Foreign Ministry de facto neither wants to comment on this issue nor provides official rejection letter.
Note: Manas airbase (formerly, Gansi) was launched in December of 2001 in Kyrgyzstan, approved by UN mandate for the support of Enduring Freedom operation in Afghanistan, run by anti-terrorist coalition forces. The airbase occupies 224 hectares in the suburb of Bishkek, adjacent to Manas International Airport. In 2008 the state budget of Kyrgyz Republic received about $38 million as the airbase rental income. There about 1.2 thousand US and other states military as well as military transport aircrafts and fuel-servicing airplanes.
