Islam Times - Kyrgyzstan ends US lease of Manas Transit Center

Islam Times - Kyrgyzstan has notified the United States of its decision to end Washington’s lease on an airbase used for the transfer of US troops to Afghanistan.

The Kyrgyz Foreign Ministry has said that all previously signed agreements on Manas Transit Center would become ineffective in July 2014.

On June 20, a majority of lawmakers in the Kyrgyz parliament voted in favor of ending the agreement to lease the airbase in June 2014. The bill has now been signed into law by Kyrgyzstan’s President Almazbek Atambayev.

Washington expected that the base would remain open in return for higher rent.

The United States has been paying 60 million dollars annually for the base. All US troops moving in and out of Afghanistan travel through Manas, which is located outside the Kyrgyz capital, Bishkek.

Washington has been using the military installation as a transit since 2001.

The closure of the strategic airbase is likely to jeopardize supplies to US troops in Afghanistan.

In late 2010, then-US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said that Washington would not consider closing its Manas transit center until troops were pulled out of Afghanistan in 2014.