The Kyrgyz parliament has started hearings on the revision of agreements determining the status and maintenance of Russian military facilities located on the territory of the Central Asian state.
Moscow and Bishkek signed in August a new deal, which extends the presence of Russian military facilities in Kyrgyzstan for another 15 years. Their status is currently regulated by five intergovernmental agreements.
“Russia has proposed to combine all previous agreements in one to facilitate the regulation process,” Kyrgyz Deputy Defense Minister Zamir Suyerkulov told lawmakers at a parliamentary session on Monday.
“The new status agreement should come into force in 2017,” he said.
Kyrgyzstan hosts a Russian airbase in Kant, some 20 kilometers (12 miles) outside the capital, Bishkek, a naval communications center in the village of Chaldovar in the Chui region, a naval testing site near the city of Karakol, 380 km (240 miles) from Bishkek, and a radioseismic laboratory in Mailuu-Sai, which is part of the unified automated system designed to detect the testing and use of nuclear weapons around the world, as well as earthquakes.
The Kant airbase works in the interests of the Collective Security Treaty Organization - a regional security body.
Russia pays $4.5 million annually to use these military installations.
