Tajikistan and Uzbekistan will not place American military bases on the territory of their countries, Russian Presidential Special Representative for Afghanistan Zamir Kabulov said in an interview with the Izvestia newspaper on Monday.
"Our contacts with Tajik and Uzbek partners tell us that they have not been officially approached [by the United States to establish military bases on the territory of Tajikistan and Uzbekistan]. That's one. Secondly, they have made it clear that this is impossible. Therefore, we don't have to counteract this," commented Kabulov on The Wall Street Journal report about the US interest in deploying troops to these countries.
Tajikistan is a member of the CSTO, and such decisions should be approved by the organization. Uzbekistan has a strategic partnership with Russia, and the country has a law that prohibits the establishment of foreign military bases on its territory. "So, we don't have to worry about this," Kabulov added.
The Wall Street Journal earlier reported, quoting its sources, that the US is considering the possibility of deploying the troops withdrawn from Afghanistan to the countries of Central Asia. In particular, in Uzbekistan and Tajikistan. The US leadership is allegedly considering such a possibility in order to "support the Afghan government, monitor the activities of the radical Taliban (banned in the Russian Federation) and monitor other extremists".
GSV "Russia - Islamic World"
Photo: Press Service of the Russian Foreign Ministry / TASS
Based on materials from TASS