"The agreement on the Manas Transit Center was signed on June 22, 2009. It is too early to speak about the prolongation of the agreement", Kadyrbek Sarbaev (the State Minister of Foreign Affairs) told the Newspaper "Slovo Kyrgyzstana Plus".
By the Minister: there are no any agreements to extend the term of using the Manas Transit Center Airbase on the territory of Kyrgyzstan after Richard Holbrooke (the U.S. special envoy) visit to Kyrgyzstan, news agency "24.kg" reported.
As it was previously reported, the U.S. Special Envoy of Barack Obama Administration to Afghanistan and Pakistan Richard Holbrooke said the Washington and the Kyrgyz Government are about to sign an agreement to extend the term of using of Transit Center Manas by American military, when he summarized his trip to Central Asian countries.
He has stated that every month the U.S soldiers, flying to and back from Afghanistan, stop over the base Manas. Holbrooke said at the press-conference in Washington that the Manas Transit Center was very important to the U.S.A. "We are very grateful for Kyrgyz Government for the assistance", he said.
"Every month nearly 35 thousand the U.S soldiers stop over the base, he said, we are going to prolong the agreement in the next few weeks and the goal of my visit was to initiate this process"
It has to be mentioned that the expert on Regional Security Issues Toktogul Kakcheev told the newspaper Slovo Kyrgyzstana Plus that the U.S. Special Envoy came to Kyrgyzstan exactly because of this fact.
The culmination of the military campaign of anti terrorist coalition falls on the autumn. That is why there is a need to prolong the agreement over the Manas Air Base. It is the Base to redeploy NATO troops to Kabul, the expert suggests.
The agreement over the Transit Center Manas by Kyrgyzstan and the U.S.A was signed on June 22, 2009. According to which the U.S.A. is to pay $170 million, whereof $ 60 million for the base rental, the rest - for cooperation agreement.