DUSHANBE, July 7, 2012, Asia-Plus – Russian media sources report that Russian Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov said on Friday that Moscow hopes to conclude an agreement with Tajikistan in October on the prolongation of the Russian military base’s presence in the Central Asian nation.
The Russian military base in Tajikistan was opened in 2004 and is the largest Russia’s base for ground forces abroad with up to 7,000 military servicemen stationed there. The base’s presence in Tajikistan expires in 2014, according to existing agreements. 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. Tajik Foreign Minister Hamrokhon Zarifi told reporters in Dushanbe 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.” During their talks in Dushanbe on September 2, 2011, Tajik President Emomali Rahmon and his Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev agreed to sign a formal agreement extending the presence of Russia”s military base in Tajikistan for another 49 years.
“I hope that in October our Tajik colleagues will be ready to sign documents. I believe that the financial terms for the lease of the base will remain unchanged,” Serdyukov told journalists in Kaliningrad on July 6 on conclusion of the 62nd session of the CIS council of defense ministers.
According to RIA Novosit, under the current agreements Russia does not pay Tajikistan for its military base, but renders the country military and technical assistance. However, this form of assistance is not officially stated as a form of the payment.
We will recall that in a report released at a joint news conference in Kaliningrad, Tajik Minister of Defense, Colonel-General Sherali Khairulloyev revealed on July 5 that Tajikistan is preparing its own version of the agreement on the presence of Russian military base on the Tajik territory.
Tajik defense minister did not comment on the statements made by the Chief of the General Staff Nikolai Makarov, and Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Ground Forces Vladimir Chirkin, who criticized the position of Dushanbe on the preparation of an agreement on further presence of the 201st Russian military base in Tajikistan. He just said that a government commission (for the preparation of the contract), headed by the prime minister, had been set up. Khairulloyev is also member of this commission.
Meanwhile, commenting on the situation around the Russian military base in Tajikistan, deputy director of the Moscow-based Institute for Political and Military Analysis, Alexander Khramchikhin, told RIA Novosti on July 4 that like many other developing countries, Central Asian nations continue to believe in the unlimited power of the U.S. military, and perhaps hope that they will protect them from the Taliban better than Russia. “However, we cannot rule out the possibility that the Tajik leadership has opted for the protection of Beijing, not Washington. That would signal a whole new ball game and a new geopolitical reality,” said Khramchikhin. “The Chinese political scientist Wu Sezhi said two years ago that “the creation of the SCO meets the political and economic interests of China in Central Asia and increases its influence over the former socialist republics. Their role as objects of geopolitical strategy for the United States and Russia is diminishing, and they are showing growing confidence in China.” Clearly, the rivalry between Russia and China in Central Asia is not just inevitable, it has already begun.”
