BISHKEK, May 31 (RIA Novosti, Yulia Orlova) - There is no need to deploy a military base in southern Kyrgyzstan, Secretary General of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSO) Nikolai Bordyuzha said on Tuesday. The CSTO comprises Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Armenia.
"I don't know why the base should be deployed," he said and explained that CSTO bases could not and would not be used in case of intrastate conflicts even if they posed a threat to regional security. "In such cases, strong and consolidated law enforcement agencies should act. There is no need for military bases," Bordyuzha said.
The United States and Russia each has a military base in Kyrgyzstan.
The developments in the Fergana valley on May 13are another proof of the need "to "einforce the CSTO political and law enforcement activities," he said.
On May 13, 2005, insurgents seized a prison and administrative buildings in Andizhan (Uzbekistan). Many people killed and wounded in the turmoil.
The acting foreign minister of Kyrgyzstan, Roza Otunbaeva, said on Tuesday that her country had never raised the question of housing additional foreign military bases, particularly, Chinese ones.
According to Otunbaeva, the Kyrgyz government "cannot see the territory of Kyrgyzstan as a congestion of foreign bases."
An official of the Chinese Foreign Ministry said that China may seriously consider sending its forces to southern Kyrgyzstan. "The deployment of forces in southern Kyrgyzstan may be useful in the fight against terrorism, separatism and extremism," he said. "China has no such experience," he added.
However, the official spokesman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry said that China had never sent its troops abroad commenting on this issue at Bishkek's request.
Bordyuzha arrived in Bishkek on May 30. During the visit, he met with acting Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiyev and other top officials.
They focused on the upcoming CSTO summit in Moscow. According to Bordyuzha, "making a single list of terrorist organizations" will be a key issue on the summit's agenda. It should be recognized by all the CSTO members. It can be an "unprecedented decision" letting all the member states "put up joint resistance to these terrorist organizations," Bordyuzha said.
