DUSHANBE, December 5, 2011, Asia-Plus – The United States does not plan to open military bases in Central Asia.
Mr. Robert O. Blake, the U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs, remarked this here on Saturday after a meeting with Tajik President Emomali Rahmon.
Mr. Blake arrived in Dushanbe from Bishkek where he attended Kyrgyzstan’s presidential inauguration ceremony. Before Bishkek, the U.S. official visited Ashgabat, Turkmenistan.
Answering questions of reporters in Dushanbe, the U.S. Assistant Secretary of State stressed, “We have always said that we do not plan any long-term presence or bases in the Central Asian region.”
On the military presence of the United States in Afghanistan after 2014, Mr. Blake said that Washington was currently conducting negotiations with the Afghan Government on what the military presence would be in that country upon the completion of military and security operations in 2014.
According to him, bilateral cooperation between the United States and Tajikistan as well as the current situation in Afghanistan and the international conference on Afghanistan in Bonn were among major topics of his meeting with President Emomali Rahmon.
Mr. Blake, in particular, noted that the conference on Afghanistan in Bonn would give international community an opportunity to provide assistance to Afghanistan with peace process and reconstruction of its economy. “We are supporters of trade and economic cooperation between Tajikistan and Afghanistan, in particular the supply of Tajik electricity to this country, and we will provide assistance in this issue in a long-term perspective as well,” the U.S. Assistant Secretary of State added.
