TASHKENT, Uzbekistan — The government of President Islam Karimov signaled last week that it was reconsidering the future of a U.S. air base used for operations in neighboring Afghanistan, throwing into doubt the American military presence in this former Soviet republic.
The move, amid a cooling of relations between Washington and Tashkent, marks a victory for regional giants Russia and China in their apparent efforts to push the United States out of ex-Soviet Central Asia.
Uzbekistan became a key U.S. ally in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001, attacks.
Last Tuesday, a regional alliance led by China and Russia and including Uzbekistan called for the United States and its coalition allies in Afghanistan to set a date for withdrawing from several states in Central Asia.
The Uzbek Foreign Ministry said the air base at Karshi-Khanabad, which U.S. forces use to support operations and supply humanitarian aid to Afghanistan, was only intended for combat operations in Afghanistan during the overthrow of the Taliban regime.
“Any other prospects for a U.S. military presence in Uzbekistan were not considered by the Uzbek side,” the ministry said.
Uzbekistan also claimed the United States hadn’t paid takeoff and landing fees for all its flights to and from the base, and had offered virtually no compensation for additional costs incurred by Uzbek authorities for guarding the base, new infrastructure, ecological damage and inconvenience to the local population.
“In the view of the Foreign Ministry of Uzbekistan, these considerations should be central to examining the prospects of the future presence of the U.S. military force at the Khanabad air base,” the ministry said.
U.S.-led military forces have been deployed at air bases in Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan since the September 11 attacks to back up the anti-terrorist campaign in Afghanistan.
According to the U.S. military, Uzbekistan hosts at least 800 U.S. troops, while 1,200 troops from the United States and South Korea are in Kyrgyzstan.
The United States played down the impact of any decision by Uzbekistan to end the U.S. military presence there.
Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman expressed gratitude for the Uzbek government’s cooperation in fighting terrorism, but noted that the Pentagon has not made Karshi-Khanabad air base the sole focus of its basing plan for Central Asia.
At the State Department, spokesman Sean McCormack said the agreement allowing U.S. troops to use the base had been “mutually beneficial to both sides,” but that the United States had taken “steps to secure other facilities.”
But Arkady Dubnov, a Moscow-based Central Asia specialist, said the Uzbek decision marked a serious strategic setback for Washington.
“… [F]rom a geopolitical standpoint, it is a clear defeat for the United States. Uzbekistan is the first country to leave the anti-terrorist coalition in Afghanistan, and this will boost the influence of Russia and China” in Central Asia, he said.
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