The Obama Administration has maintained hope that Kyrgyz government officials would reconsider shutting down the Manas Air Base as the U.S. makes plans for an additional 17,000 troops to be sent to Afghanistan. The Kyrgyzstan parliament, however, voted yesterday in favor of closing the base to U.S. forces, giving America six months to withdraw from the facility.
Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiyev first announced plans to close down the air base following a summit in Moscow, during which Russia pledged more than $2 billion in aid to the country. Nato and U.S. officials believe that this is a strategic move by Moscow to reassert their influence over the region and force foreign military presences to deal directly with Russia.
“What Moscow is after is the tacit recognition that Central Asia is Russia’s strategic area, so that the next time the U.S. wants to do something militarily with the people in the region, it will first come to Moscow,” said Dmitri Trenin, director of the Carnegie Moscow Center.