US gets kicked out

Grounded

Parliament in Kyrgyzstan voted overwhelmingly on Thursday to shut a strategic U.S. airbase, the Pentagon’s last foothold in Central Asia.

Deputies voted 78-to-1 to approve a government proposal to remove the base set up at the Manas international airport in 2001 to support the U.S. operations in Afghanistan. President Kurmanbek Bakiyev called for evicting the U.S. military in Moscow earlier this month after being offered over $2 billion in Russian aid and investment. He is expected to sign the bill within the next 10 days, after which the U.S. has 180 days to leave the base. Russia also has an air base in Kyrgyzstan established in 2003 and expanded last year.

Manas has been the only U.S. transit hub in Central Asia after Uzbekistan shut a U.S. airbase on its territory in 2005 after the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation demanded that the U.S. set a deadline for withdrawing its bases from the region.

The decision to close the Manas airbase came shortly after Russia allowed overland transit of U.S. non-military supplies to Afghanistan. The first train with around 100 U.S. containers is about to leave from Latvia for Russia. U.S. diplomats said 20 to 30 trainloads could transit Russia every week. This would give the Pentagon a safe alternative to the current supply lines through Pakistan, which have become increasingly vulnerable to militant attacks over the last year.