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Re-establishing military base in Uzbekistan would cause negative political resonance in USA: analyst of International Crisis Group

Politics Materials 17 February 2009 18:47 (UTC +04:00)

Azerbaijan, Baku, Feb. 17 /corr. Trend E.Ostapenka / Possible re-establishment of the operation of Karshi-Khanabad military base in Uzbekistan for the transit of the nonmilitary cargos of NATO to Afghanistan would cause negative political resonance in the USA, since the situation with the human rights in Uzbekistan is very difficult, said the analyst of International Crisis Group, Paul Quinn-Judge.

"Political resonance in America regarding opening of this base in Uzbekistan will be very negative because of the poor reputation of Uzbekistan in the sphere of human rights," Quinn-Judge, told Trend by telephone from Bishkek.

According to Quinn-Judge, the U.S. President Barrack Obama has very strong position regarding human rights.

"He will have to answer sufficiently difficult questions, if suddenly some reliable relations arose with the person such as President Karimov, who does not have large glory in the world as democratic President," he said.

Karshi-Khanabad military base in Uzbekistan was used for the support of NATO's operations in the territory of Afghanistan from 2001 to 2005. After the recent decision of Kyrgyzstan to close the military base of the USA in the territory of the Kirghiz airport of Manas, the American leadership searches for alternative ways to transit its nonmilitary cargos to Afghanistan, where NATO carries out anti-terrorist operations.

On Tuesday General David Petraeus, Commander of the US military's Central Command, arrived in Uzbekistan. According to official information, the purpose of his visit is to discuss questions of regional security, problems of re-establishing peace in Afghanistan, the of the transit of the American nonmilitary cargos through the territory of Uzbekistan to Afghanistan.

Quinn-Judge considers that the new route through Central Asia will be one of the main themes during Petraeus's visit. Possibly, he will attempt to reach an agreement on expansion of the activity of the base of western coalition in Termez (in Uzbekistan), where German military base is located, he said.

Boundary node Termez-Khayraton is practically the only railway connection with Afghanistan.

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