The US on Monday welcomed statements from the interim Kyrgyz government that it would abide by existing agreements covering a US air base in the country.
US Assistant Secretary of State Robert Blake said the assurances, given by interim Kyrgyz leader Roza Otunbayeva to US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Saturday, would allow the two countries to discuss arrangements on the base, which is an important hub for troop transfers and other support for US operations in Afghanistan.
“It is very good news that Miss Otunbayeva said that they will continue to abide by those agreements and of course the United States is prepared to talk at any time with her and members of the provisional government about these arrangements,” Blake told a news briefing.
Blake spoke before departing for Kyrgyzstan for meetings with Otunbayeva and others. He will be the highest US diplomat to travel there since she claimed power after a crackdown on opposition protesters led to violence that killed at least 81 people.
Blake said the US was not formally recognizing the provisional government, but did not consider it to have taken power in a coup, and offered strong suggestions of support.
“My main goal will be to hear from the Kyrgyz administration about their assessment of the law and order situation, the steps that they plan to take during their six-month interim administration to organize democratic elections and a return to democracy, and how we might be able to help them to restore democracy and economic growth,” Blake said.
He said many victims in last week’s violence were killed by supporters of former Kyrgyz president Kurmanbek Bakiyev, who fled the capital during the upheaval on Wednesday last week.
Blake said there were no plans to meet with Bakiyev, who has been seeking to muster support in the southern part of country, but added that the dispute over power must be handled without violating the Constitution.
Blake would not comment on speculation that Russia, which has bristled at the US military presence in Kyrgyzstan, may have had a hand in driving Bakiyev from power.
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin was quick to call Otunbayeva last week, essentially recognizing her government, and Russian officials harshly criticized Bakiyev.
After receiving a Russian pledge of more than US$2 billion in assistance, Bakiyev last year said Kyrgyzstan would evict US forces from the base. He later reversed course and agreed to keep the base open at a higher price.
After last week’s upheaval, members of Otunbayeva’s government had suggested the base lease would be shortened.
Blake said the US would not push hard now for further commitments on the base.
“They’ve got a lot of other things on their plate that they have to sort out ... so when they’re prepared to talk about this ... we will be glad to have those conversations,” he said.
The expiration of the agreement allowing the US to use the base was not immediately clear, but Kyrgyzstan would have to give six months notice if it wants to evict US forces.
The US Embassy said the transit of troops to and from Afghanistan, halted because of the upheaval, had resumed, but the Pentagon said on Monday that some inbound passenger flights were being sent elsewhere. Past decisions to restrict such flights have been attributed to security concerns.
PARLIAMENT CHAOS: Police forcibly removed Brazilian Deputy Glauber Braga after he called the legislation part of a ‘coup offensive’ and occupied the speaker’s chair Brazil’s lower house of Congress early yesterday approved a bill that could slash former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro’s prison sentence for plotting a coup, after efforts by a lawmaker to disrupt the proceedings sparked chaos in parliament. Bolsonaro has been serving a 27-year term since last month after his conviction for a scheme to stop Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva from taking office after the 2022 election. Lawmakers had been discussing a bill that would significantly reduce sentences for several crimes, including attempting a coup d’etat — opening up the prospect that Bolsonaro, 70, could have his sentence cut to
A powerful magnitude 7.6 earthquake shook Japan’s northeast region late on Monday, prompting tsunami warnings and orders for residents to evacuate. A tsunami as high as three metres (10 feet) could hit Japan’s northeastern coast after an earthquake with an estimated magnitude of 7.6 occurred offshore at 11:15 p.m. (1415 GMT), the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) said. Tsunami warnings were issued for the prefectures of Hokkaido, Aomori and Iwate, and a tsunami of 40cm had been observed at Aomori’s Mutsu Ogawara and Hokkaido’s Urakawa ports before midnight, JMA said. The epicentre of the quake was 80 km (50 miles) off the coast of
China yesterday held a low-key memorial ceremony for the 1937 Nanjing Massacre, with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) not attending, despite a diplomatic crisis between Beijing and Tokyo over Taiwan. Beijing has raged at Tokyo since Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi last month said that a hypothetical Chinese attack on Taiwan could trigger a military response from Japan. China and Japan have long sparred over their painful history. China consistently reminds its people of the 1937 Nanjing Massacre, in which it says Japanese troops killed 300,000 people in what was then its capital. A post-World War II Allied tribunal put the death toll
A passerby could hear the cacophony from miles away in the Argentine capital, the unmistakable sound of 2,397 dogs barking — and breaking the unofficial world record for the largest-ever gathering of golden retrievers. Excitement pulsed through Bosques de Palermo, a sprawling park in Buenos Aires, as golden retriever-owners from all over Argentina transformed the park’s grassy expanse into a sea of bright yellow fur. Dog owners of all ages, their clothes covered in dog hair and stained with slobber, plopped down on picnic blankets with their beloved goldens to take in the surreal sight of so many other, exceptionally similar-looking ones.
RSS