WASHINGTON - The United States is considering resuming military cooperation with authoritarian Uzbekistan as a part of backup planning for the potential loss of a nearby air hub for troops and supplies in the widening Afghanistan war, US officials said yesterday.
Defense officials say they are examining options for supply routes through a semicircle of nations from Central Asia to the Persian Gulf that could be used in place of the strategic air base in the former Soviet republic of Kyrgyzstan.
Uzbekistan, a hard-line former Soviet satellite with rigid economic controls, is a surprise contender because diplomatic relations between the United States and Uzbekistan are rocky at best. After a brief 1990s rapprochement with the United States, the Uzbeks expelled American forces from a base there in 2005, and the two nations have traded accusations ever since.
Defense officials said planning to substitute for Manas is a preliminary hedge in case the Bishkek government makes good on a threat to expel the United States from a hub serving about 15,000 US personnel coming and going from Afghanistan each month, along with 500 tons of goods.
Defense officials spoke on condition of anonymity because the plans are preliminary and the United States is still negotiating with Kyrgyzstan about continued use of the base. Several officials said that dispute is likely to come down to money: Either the United States agrees to a significant increase in rent or Kyrgyzstan will yield to Russian pressure to kick the United States out.
Asked about the Kyrgyz situation in an appearance at the State Department, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said it was troubling but would not impede US plans to expand its military presence in Afghanistan. She said the Pentagon was "conducting an examination as to how else we would proceed" in the event the Manas air base is no longer available.
"It's regrettable that this is under consideration by the government of Kyrgyzstan," Clinton told reporters, "and we hope to have further discussions with them. But we will proceed in a very effective manner no matter what the outcome of the Kyrgyzstan government's deliberations might be."
White House press secretary Robert Gibbs called the Manas base a vital hub for Afghanistan and said the United States is trying to "remedy" the problem with Kyrgyzstan.
The United States set up Manas and a base in neighboring Uzbekistan in 2001 to back operations in Afghanistan. Uzbekistan expelled US troops from the base on its territory in 2005, leaving Manas as the only US military facility in the immediate region.