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MOSCOW: There is "no doubt" that the US military presence in Kyrgyzstan will end as the new leadership in the Central Asian state does not intend to allow it to continue indefinitely, a top Russian lawmaker said on Friday.
"In the eyes of the new Kyrgyz leadership, the issue of the withdrawal of the Americans must be resolved when the time comes," Sergei Mironov, leader of the upper house of the Russian parliament, the Federation Council, told a small group of journalists.
For the newly-elected president of Kyrgyzstan, Kurmanbek Bakiyev, "there is no doubt that they will leave," although his administration has not yet set a deadline for them to do so, Mironov stated.
His comments came less than three weeks after the government of another key Central Asian state, Uzbekistan, evicted the US forces from the country’s territory, giving them 180 days to clear out.
Both ex-Soviet republics currently host US forces, mainly airlift assets, that have been used for operations in neighbouring Afghanistan since shortly after the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States. US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld visited Kyrgyzstan after following the Uzbek eviction notice and obtained an assurance from Bishkek that US forces would be allowed to remain in the country "as long as the situation in Afghanistan requires."