Reply #9: Well! Looky here! Rice Reaches Agreement to Maintain Airbase in Kyrgyzstan

[Roland99]

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/11/international/asia/11cnd-rice.html

BISHKEK, Kyrgyzstan, Oct. 11 - Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice met with the new leaders of Kyrgyzstan today and reached agreement on long-term rights to maintain an airbase here for servicing military aircraft on missions to Afghanistan.

The United States and allied forces may continue to use the base, adjacent to the international airport, "until the situation in Afghanistan is completely stabilized," the Kyrgyz president, Kurmanbek S. Bakiyev, said at a news conference this afternoon.

Last July, Kyrgyzstan, along with three other Central Asian states as well as Russia and China, issued a joint statement calling on the United States to evacuate all its bases in this region.

A short time later, the Kyrgyz defense minister told Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld that the United States could continue to use the base. But since then, Kyrgyzstan has formed a new government, and a senior State Department official said the government had waffled on a basing commitment before the agreement today.

Think Rummy might try to resign for a third time and this time it will get accepted?