| And “held” parliamentary elections in Afghanistan On Sunday, the elected President of Kyrgyzstan, Kurmanbek Bakiyev, in an interview with the Rossiya TV channel, confirmed that his country intends to raise the question of the timing of the withdrawal of American military bases from Central Asia. As is known, such an appeal was made by the heads of state members of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) at a meeting in Astana on July 5.
The signal sent by the Shanghainese to Washington apparently came as a surprise to the American administration. Official comments from its representatives even showed some confusion about this and boiled down to the fact that the US military presence in Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan is determined by bilateral agreements. Therefore, they say, it is not the SCO’s place to demand a revision of these agreements. In the unofficial comments that have filled the American and Western press in recent days, there has been concern that the initiators of this SCO call were China and Russia, who took advantage of the sharp deterioration in relations between Washington and Tashkent after the brutal suppression of the rebellion in Andijan by the Uzbek authorities to oust the American presence in Central Asia. Asia.
Over the past two weeks after the summit in Astana, not a single SCO leader has personally refuted or confirmed these suspicions. The Kyrgyz leader was the first, and quite unexpectedly, to do this. In an interview with Russian television, he stated this simply and unambiguously. “Due to the fact that Vladimir Putin raised this question (for how long is the US military base located in Kyrgyzstan - Ed. ), I say: yes, today the situation is different.” Thus, the whole intrigue of the Astana SCO summit has ceased to be a secret. It’s hard to say how happy Moscow is with such frankness.
It is also difficult to say how they reacted here to Mr. Bakiyev’s argumentation, with which he justified the need to determine the timing of the withdrawal of American bases located in the region to support US military operations in Afghanistan. “The situation (in Afghanistan. - Ed. ) has changed, a president has been elected, parliamentary elections have been held, why not consider the issue,” argues the acting commander. President of Kyrgyzstan in his television interview.
Either Kurmanbek Bakiyev was let down by his advisers, or he simply misspoke, but one way or another he betrayed his, to put it mildly, complete ignorance of the situation in almost neighboring Afghanistan. The president there has indeed already been elected, Hamid Karzai. But parliamentary elections are still ahead. Having been postponed more than once, they are scheduled for September this year. Moreover, guaranteeing that elections will be held on time this time would be risky. Internal political tension is growing in Afghanistan, armed clashes are occurring, and stability on the eve of elections is in serious doubt.
As for the bilateral agreements between the United States and Kyrgyzstan on the deployment of American bases in the country, their fate does not seem predetermined at all. According to Vremya Novostei information obtained from informed sources in Washington, US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld is scheduled to visit Bishkek at the end of July. And it is possible that, when communicating with the new Kyrgyz leader, he will make him offers that will be difficult to refuse. We are talking about providing serious financial assistance for an indefinite period of time in exchange for “closing the issue” raised in Astana. And then all the SCO steam will go down the drain. Arkady DUBNOV |
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