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US gives up on Central Asian base
http://blogs.rediff.com/mkbhadrakumar/2013/10/21/us-gives-up-on-central-asian-base/US gives up on Central Asian base
The United States has turned its back on what could have been a thrilling episode in the Great Game in Central Asia. The Pentagon announced on Friday that the US is vacating Manas airbase in Kyrgyzstan by July 2014, as demanded by Bishkek.
Instead, the US is setting up a logistics hub in Romania to back up troop rotation in Afghanistan. Curiously, Romania is also permitting the US to deploy its Aegis Ashore missile defence system at the American base at Deveselu.
If Kyrgyzstan hoped that the US would bargain, that is not to be. Bishkek is going to lose a lot of revenue. In 2012 the lease of Manas to the US brought in $142 million into the Kyrgyz economy, aside generating hundreds of jobs.
Someone will have to make up because Kyrgyzstan is a desperately poor country. The IMF expects that the “closure of the Manas Transit Centre is creating headwinds” for the Kyrgyz economy.
