Loss of U.S. Base in Kyrgyzstan...

The BBC article that served as the supplemental reading for week six was one that I found to be really interesting. I am probably not as up to date on foreign affairs as I should be, so I was not aware of what was going on with the Manas airbase in Kyrgyzstan until I read about it for this class. In reading the article, it seems as though the decision made by Kyrgyzstan to end its ties with the U.S. and Nato is putting the United States at a disadvantage at a time when the base would be very beneficial to them. As the article mentions, the Obama administration is planning to increase troops in Afghanistan, and since this base did serve as a key stop for troops on their way to Afghanistan, they are now faced with the challenge of coming up with alternative means of transporting not only soldiers, but supplies as well.

This article mentioned an upcoming vote on the matter that would finalize the decision, so I did some searching and found an article posted thirteen days later on an Asian news site that confirmed the passing of the bill by the Krygyzstan parliament (the final vote was 78-1 against the US!). It was said that the closure did not have anything to do with Russia's offer of $2 billion to Kyrgyzstan, but the update article suggested that the U.S. was not providing sufficient rent, so is it really believable that Russia's offer didn't play any role at all in the decision? Anyway, both the BBC article and the article from the Asian news source made a point of mentioning that the United States was attempting to work out an agreement with Uzbekistan, so I guess now we’ll just have to wait and see what happens.

Here is the link for the update article:
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-02/19/content_10849960.htm