Kyrgyzstan will not increase the rent for Russian military facilities on its territory and wants to continue receiving payments in the form of military assistance, the Kyrgyz defense minister said on Thursday.
"We have agreed with experts that the amount of rent should remain unchanged and an addendum [to the previous agreements] should be signed, stipulating that Kyrgyzstan will receive annual military-technical assistance in the form of military supplies," Abibilla Kudaiberdiyev said.
Kyrgyzstan hosts four Russian military facilities, including the airbase in the city of Kant, some 20 kilometers (12 miles) outside the capital, Bishkek, a naval training and research center at Lake Issyk-Kul, as well as two seismic facilities in the Issyk-Kul and Jalalabad regions used for monitoring global nuclear tests.
"Russia pays Kyrgyzstan $4.5 million annually for the rent of its military facilities, which occupy a total area of 866 hectares," Kudaiberdiyev told reporters after his visit to Moscow on September 12-13.
"These facilities operate not only in the interest of Russia, but also Kyrgyzstan. In case of an external military threat to the republic, the Russian airbase in Kant will provide the necessary military assistance," the minister said.
During Kurmanbek Bakiyev's presidency, Moscow and Bishkek discussed the issue of combining all Russian military facilities in Kyrgyzstan into a United Russian Military Base.
A memorandum was signed by Bakiyev and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev in August 2009. It stipulated the opening of a Russian training center for Russian and Kyrgyz soldiers and the deployment of up to 500 additional soldiers in the Central Asian republic.
However, Bakiyev was overthrown amid large-scale opposition protests in April and fled the country.
Kudaiberdiyev said Russian-Kyrgyz talks on the status and terms of the proposed United Russian Military Base could be completed by March 2011.
The United States also has a facility in Kyrgyzstan, previously a military base and now a transit center for supplying troops in Afghanistan.
BISHKEK, September 16 (RIA Novosti)
