Uzbekistan against new Russian military base in Kyrgyzstan

09:46, 4 August 2009

TASHKENT. August 4. KAZINFORM Uzbekistan is against the deployment of a new Russian military base in southern Kyrgyzstan, the Uzbek Foreign Ministry said Monday, Kazinform cites RIA Novosti.

The ministry said that "implementation of such projects" could "reinforce militarization processes" as well as "seriously destabilize the situation in the vast region."

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and his Kyrgyz counterpart Kurmanbek Bakiyev signed on Saturday a memorandum on Russia's military presence in Kyrgyzstan.

Kyrgyzstan already hosts a Russian airbase in Kant and four other Russian military facilities. The airbase in Kant, some 20 kilometers (12 miles) outside the capital, Bishkek, was opened in 2003.

Some 250 Russian officers and 150 enlisted personnel from Russia's 5th Air Army are deployed at the base, as well as Su-25 Frogfoot strike aircraft and Mi-8 transport helicopters, Kazinform refers to RIA Novosti.

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