MOSCOW (AP) – Russia has secured permission for its military aircraft to use an air base in Uzbekistan, a news report said Thursday, as part of Moscow’s efforts to extend its presence in Central Asia.
The Interfax news agency quoted Lt. Gen. Aitech Bizhev, a deputy chief of the Russian air force, as saying that the two nations agreed last month that Russian military aircraft could use the Navoi air base in central Uzbekistan in emergencies.
In exchange, Russia will equip the air base in the ex-Soviet nation with modern navigation systems and air defense weapons, Bizhev said.
While falling short of a permanent military presence, the deal offers Russia an opportunity to quickly deploy its forces to the region.
Bizhev also said in the future, Uzbekistan will host the regional headquarters of a unified air defense system for Russia and several other ex-Soviet nations.
Uzbekistan evicted U.S. troops last year and signed a far-reaching alliance treaty with Moscow that opened the way for possible Russian military deployment.
In the past, Uzbekistan’s authoritarian President Islam Karimov had reacted coldly to Russia’s military cooperation initiatives and sought to cultivate closer ties with the United States and other Western nations, hosting U.S. troops for operations in Afghanistan in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks.
But Karimov abruptly changed course following Western criticism of the Uzbek authorities’ brutal suppression of the May 2005 uprising in the city of Andijan, and forged closer ties with Russia and China.
The Shanghai Cooperation Organization, a security grouping dominated by Moscow and Beijing that includes Uzbekistan and three other former Soviet Central Asian nations, urged the United States in 2005 to set a timetable for withdrawing from their bases in the region.
Both the United States and Russia maintain air bases in another ex-Soviet nation, Kyrgzystan. Russia also has a military base in neighboring Tajikistan.
Bizhev said Thursday that Russia was modernizing Tajikistan’s air defense headquarters with state-of-the art equipment.
