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In this March 1, 2005 file photo, a U.S. military personnel member is seen at the airfield as a transport plane taxies at the U.S. air base in Manas international airport 30 kilometers (19 miles) from the Kyrgyz capital Bishkek. Kyrgyzstan's government submitted a draft bill to parliament Wednesday, Feb. 4, 2009 to revoke the country's hosting of a U.S. base that is an important component of the Afghanistan military campaign. ( AP Photo/Ivan Sekretarev, File ) The recent decision by President Kurmanbek Bakiyev of Kyrgyzstan to close the U.S. military base in the small Central Asian country should come as no surprise to Washington's new foreign policy team. Since its establishment in the fall of 2001, the U.S. air base at Manas has been founded upon the granting of narrow economic incentives to the host country - and not on the Kyrgyz Republic's commitment to the broader international campaign in Afghanistan. What began as a relationship based on economics is about...

MOSCOW: The Kyrgyz government is planning to close a strategically important U.S. military base that Washington uses as a route for troops and supplies heading into Afghanistan, Russian media reported Tuesday. Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiyev said at a news conference in Moscow that “all due procedures” were being initiated to close Manas Air Base, the Russian news agency RIA-Novosti reported. The announcement was made after news reports of a multimillion-dollar aid package from Russia to Kyrgyzstan. Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell on Tuesday called Manas “a hugely important air base.” “It provides us with launching point to provide supplies in Afghanistan. We very much appreciate [Kyrgyz] support in using that base and we hope to continue,” he said at his daily news briefing. Gen. David Petraeus, who oversees U.S. operations in the Middle East and Central Asia, including Afghanistan, was in Kyrgyzstan last month, partly to lobby the government to allow the United States to keep usi...