The issue of creating a new Russian military base in Kyrgyzstan's south is still on the agenda, the Kyrgyz Foreign Ministry said.
"No official negotiations are currently being held on the issue, but it remains relevant today," acting Foreign Minister Ruslan Kazakbayev said.
Russia already has a military base in Kant, some 20 kilometers (12 miles) outside the capital, Bishkek. The United States also has a facility in the Central Asian state, previously a military base and now a transit center for supplying troops in Afghanistan.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and his then Kyrgyz counterpart Kurmanbek Bakiyev signed a memorandum in August 2009 on the opening of a Russian training center for Russian and Kyrgyz soldiers and the deployment of additional troops in the Central Asian republic (up to 500 soldiers). The troops are to operate in Kyrgyzstan under the aegis of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), a post-Soviet security bloc.
In line with the memorandum, Russia plans to unite all its military facilities in Kyrgyzstan into a United Russian Military Base. It would include the airbase in Kant, a new training center, and some smaller facilities.
A relevant agreement should have been drawn up by November 2009. However, the Russian and Kyrgyz authorities were reluctant to prepare the document. April's coup in the republic overturned the Bakiyev government, and the deal was shelved.
On July 1, CSTO Secretary General Nikolai Bordyuzha said talks on the issue could be renewed following the Kyrgyz June 27 referendum. The vote turned the country from a presidential to a parliamentary republic and made the interim prime minister, Roza Otunbayeva, the country's president for a transitional period until 2012. Political changes are expected to bring more stability to the turbulent Central Asian state.
Bordyuzha said the creation of the base was possible as the new Kyrgyz authorities had pledged to maintain the previous government's policies towards Russia. He said the decision would "depend on the stabilization of the situation in Kyrgyzstan" and could be made after the situation improved.
Kyrgyzstan is recovering from bloody interethnic clashes that swept through the republic's south in mid-June. Up to 300 people were killed in the unrest, according to official estimates, with an unofficial death toll exceeding 2,000.
BISHKEK, July 8 (RIA Novosti)
