Azerbaijan, Baku, Feb. 10 / Trend V. Zhavoronkova /
The future of the U.S. Manas base in Kyrgyzstan is still unclear, a Russian expert on Central Asia Leonid Gusev said.
Kyrgyzstan's parliament denied the consideration of early closing of the U.S. Manas air base in the country. Kyrgyz opposition parliamentary faction Ata-Jurt moved forward the idea to close the base before its lease expires in 2014. The faction explained its idea to close Manas earlier because of ecological damage, the base causes.
Gusev believes that the Kyrgyz Parliament's decision not to vote for Manas's pre-term closure is due to a number of reasons.
The first reason is Kyrgyzstan's unwillingness to disrupt its relationship with the U.S, he said.
"Kyrgyzstan gets about $63 million lease money per year from the U.S., that is rather good amount for such county as Kyrgyzstan," Senior Fellow at the Institute of International Studies at the Russian Foreign Ministry's Moscow State Institute of the International Relations Leonid Gusev told Trend via e-mail.
He added that Kyrgyz Parliament probably supports the country's president Almazbek Atabayev, who told that the base will definitely be closed after the lease expires, but not earlier.
Expert believes, it is still unclear whether the base will be closed in 2014, as Atambayev promises.
"It is unclear what Kyrgyzstan will do without Manas either," he added.
Gusev said the issue of Manas will probably be brought up closer to its lease expiration date. Then everything will depend on the situation in Afghanistan, he added.
The Transit Centre at Manas was opened in late 2001 after the U.S launched its operation in Afghanistan. At present, it accommodates about 1,200 U.S soldiers. According to Pentagon statistics, the base handles up to 15,000 coalition servicemen and 500 tons of cargoes a month.