Azerbaijan, Baku, July 6 / Trend V. Zhavoronkova /
Tajikistan is not yet considering the possibility of deploying on its territory a new foreign military base, Tajik expert Vafo Niyatbekov believes.
U.S. sees Tajikistan as an alternative to the Manas military base in Bishkek after 2014, after the expiration of the agreement with Kyrgyzstan, a member of the U.S. House of Representative Committee on Foreign Affairs, Dan Burton, said at a news conference in Dushanbe on Friday.
According to the expert, it's early to talk about the possibility of deploying U.S. troops in Tajikistan.
"Tajikistan has not yet discussed the deployment of foreign troops. Is not this a kind of the U.S. blackmail against Kyrgyzstan," chief specialist of the Center for Strategic Studies under the President of Tajikistan Vafo Niyatbekov told Trend on Friday.
He stressed that saying that whether Tajikistan is ready to become an alternative to Kyrgyzstan, it should be noted that Dushanbe has an agreement with Russia to deploy Russian military base on its territory.
"In addition, the CSTO made a decision to prevent deployment of the armed forces of third countries on the territory of the member states," the expert said.
He said that taking into account the legal side of things, Tajikistan has the right to open only a kind of a transit point on its territory like a Transit Center at Kyrgyz Manas airport.
Tajikistan is in talks with Russia to extend the stay of the Russian military base on its territory.
"I think that the issue of Russian military base in Tajikistan will be solved until the year end," Niyatbekov believes.
He said there are no categorical differences between the parties on this issue, there are only some conditions of their agreement, to be reconciled, such as term bases in the country.
The Russian military base was established in Tajikistan in 2004 on the basis of the 201st Division. It has over 6,000 troops stationed in Dushanbe, Kulyab and Kurgan-Tube.