BISHKEK, July 14 (RIA Novosti) - The United States is going to pay Kyrgyzstan about $150 million for the continued use of an air base in the country in 2007, the Kyrgyz government said Friday.
The two countries reached the agreement in negotiations on the U.S.'s further military presence in the Central Asian republic.
The U.S. government is going to pay fair compensation to Kyrgyzstan and its private sector for the goods and services provided in support of U.S. operations, a joint U.S.-Kyrgyz statement said.
It also said Kyrgyzstan had over the past four and a half years been a strong and reliable coalition partner in combating international terror.
The U.S. air base, located at Manas international airport in the south of the Kyrgyz capital, was opened in December 2001 under a UN mandate as part of Operation Enduring Freedom. At present, about 1,000 U.S. servicemen and several military transport aircraft are deployed there.
Last year, Kyrgyz President Bakiyev demanded that the rent be increased 100 times from the current $2.6 million, saying that it had until then been "purely symbolic."
