Novosti
2005-03-04 17:03
AWACS PLANES NOT ADMITTED IN KYRGYZSTAN
BISHKEK, March 4 (RIA Novosti) – The Foreign Ministry of Kyrgyzstan has
described the US Ambassador’s remark that American spy planes could be
deployed in the country as a misunderstanding.
“It was only a misunderstanding that US Ambassador to Kyrgyzstan Stephen
Young said the U.S. had not requested a Kyrgyz permission to deploy AWACS
planes,” the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
According to the Kyrgyz Foreign Ministry’s Friday statement, the US Embassy
to Bishkek “did apply to the Foreign Ministry, via a relevant Note, for a
permission to have AWACS planes deployed in the territory of the republic.
More, NATO Secretary General Mr. Scheffer had previously applied for the
same permission in a letter to the Kyrgyz Foreign Minister.” However, the
statement reads, “head of the American mission to the Kyrgyz Republic Mr. S.
Young said that the American side had never raised the issue.”
At the same time, the Foreign Ministry said the case in point was only “a
disagreement about the Americans’ admitting that there had been such a
request,” rather than military-political differences between the two
countries. Relations between the U.S. and Kyrgyzstan appear to be in good
condition, with a U.S. airbase hosted at Manas, the Bishkek international
airport.
The Foreign Ministry of Kyrgyzstan was forced to make this statement by
critical voices in the national media, which accused the ministry of
“confused public diplomacy” and cited an alleged military-political
disagreement between the two countries.
The Kyrgyz Foreign Ministry believes that everything is clear now and there
will be no more speculations about possible deployment of AWACS planes in
the country.
Having consulted the member states of the Collective Security Treaty
Organization (Russia, Belarus, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and
Tajikistan) and Shanghai Cooperation Organization (Russia, Kazakhstan,
Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, China, and Uzbekistan), the Foreign Ministry of
Kyrgyzstan responded to NATO and the U.S. that it could not permit AWACS
deployment, for the deployment of US spy planes in the country “would be
beyond the mandate and mission of the military-humanitarian operation in
Afghanistan and not in line with the country’s CSTO and SCO commitments.”