DUSHANBE, February 29, 2012, Asia-Plus – Tajikistan will insist on payment of rent for deployment of Russian military base in the country.
Tajik Ambassador to Russia Abdulmajid Dostiyev remarked this in an interview with Radio Liberty’s Tajik Service on February 28.
Ambassador Dostiyev, in particular, noted that Tajikistan and Russia are preparing to extend Russia”s use of three bases in Tajikistan (between 5,500 and 7,000 Russian troops are reportedly deployed in the southern cities of Qurgon Teppa and Kulob, and Dushanbe combined) for another 49 years.
Asked why there was a delay in signing, Ambassador Dostiyev indicated among the details still being negotiated was the matter of rent for use of the Tajik bases and said “no one in the world today intends to give up even a small plot of their land for nothing.” The Tajik ambassador said, “Our country should keep this in mind, whether there should be payment of some $300 million or compensation through providing military-technical aid,” adding “nobody will say thank you to those who give up their land for free to others.”
The $300 million figure has been mentioned in Tajikistan but Dostiyev conceded that even 10 percent of that amount of money would be acceptable, Radio Liberty’s Tajik Service reports.
Ambassador Dostiyev expressed confidence that the country’s authorities will be guided only by national interests while considering the issue of deployment of Russian military base in Tajikistan.
We will recall that in a report released at a news conference in Dushanbe, Tajik Foreign Minister Hamrokhon Zarifi noted on July 18, 2011 that Tajik territory cannot be used by a foreign military free of charge. Some Russian media source reported last year that Tajik Foreign Minister Hamrokhon Zarifi suggested that Russia should pay 300 million annually and they deemed this suggestion “unrealistic.”
Under the current 10-year lease signed in 2004, Russia gets exclusive use of three military bases and joint use of an air base free of charge. During their talks in Dushanbe on September 2, 2011, Tajik resident Emomali Rahmon and his Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev agreed to sign a formal agreement extending the presence of Russia”s 201st Division in Tajikistan for another 49 years.
The presence of Russian troops in Tajikistan reportedly accounts for Russia”s second-largest military contingent outside its own territory — following only the 13,000-strong Black Sea Fleet in the Ukrainian city of Sevastopol.
