BISHKEK, Kyrgyzstan -- The United States made its first high-level contact with the interim government of Kyrgyzstan on Saturday, getting assurances that the new leadership would live up to previous agreements and allow American use of an airport that plays an important role in supplying the war effort in Afghanistan.
But a statement posted on the State Department Web site did not indicate how long the agreements were for, and the long-term prognosis for the use of the airport remains murky. Russia has bridled in the past at the American presence in a region it calls part of its zone of influence.
We can take the short-term assurance and work on the long-term, though the latter likely will cost us some coin ...
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton called the transitional leader, Roza Otunbayeva, in Bishkek, the capital, late in the evening Saturday, according to the State Department and Ms. Otunbayeva's chief of staff. |