BISHKEK - Kyrgyzstan is seeking to sharply increase, to 50 million dollars (41.4 million euros) a year, the amount the United States pays for an airbase supporting its troops in Afghanistan, parliament speaker Omurbek Tekebayev said late Monday.The fees for the 1,000-hectare (2,500-acre) Manas airbase should now be paid only to the Kyrgyz state, at a rate of five to six dollars per square metre, Tekebayev said. âAll the money coming from the airbase must go into the state budget,â he said. Under the current complicated system, the land on which the airbase is located is controled by several entities, which charge anything between three cents and four dollars per square meter.
Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiyev said last month that Washington should pay âtens of times moreâ for use of the airbase. Bakiyev earlier raised environmental concerns as a reason to âreviewâ the rent paid by America for use of the base.
| I guess we'll suck it up and pay it for now, but Bakiyev ought to remember what finally happened to Ferdinand Marcos. |
Top US officials including Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice visited Kyrgystan and other Central Asian states several times last year, though Washington has denied it is looking for a new base in the region.