Azerbaijan, Baku, Feb.20 / Trend, V. Zhavoronkova/
All foreign military contingent based on Pentagon's airbase at the Manas International Airport in Bishkek, should be withdrawn from the country in the summer of 2014, Kyrgyz President Almazbek Atambayev told the U.S. State Department official, Kyrgyz presidential press service reported.
"Foreign military contingent should not be in Manas Civil Airport after the summer of 2014," President Atambayev said at a meeting with the delegation headed by Deputy Assistant U.S. Secretary of State for South and Central Asia Susan Elliott.
According to President Atambayev, that future cooperation with the U.S. will be built based on national interests of Kyrgyzstan, and democratic development will serve as a factor in strengthening bilateral relations between two countries.
In his turn, Mr Elliott expressed gratitude to the Kyrgyz Republic for its contribution to the Manas Transit Center for security assurance in Afghanistan and in the region as a whole.
The U.S. air base, renamed as the Transit Center, was established at the Manas International Airport in Bishkek in December 2001, and today it involves about 1,200 soldiers. The base is an important part of the NATO Operation Enduring Freedom - Afghanistan. The agreement on deployment of the U.S. air base in Kyrgyzstan is valid until 2014.