MOSNEWS.COM reports:
A top U.S. military officer, Gen. Richard B. Myers, accused Russia and China on Thursday of “trying to bully” smaller Central Asian nations that host U.S. troops and cooperate with Washington in fighting terrorism, Associated Press reported…
…The statement last week by the Shanghai Cooperation Organization was interpreted by some as an attempt by Russia and China to push the U.S. out of a region that Moscow regards as historically part of its sphere of influence and in which Beijing seeks a bigger role because of the region’s extensive energy resources.
“No, I don’t think the Shanghai memo or communique or whatever that came out was particularly useful,” Myers said. “Looks to me like two very large countries were trying to bully some smaller countries. That’s how I view it.”
Myers said the U.S. has much to offer that region. “Security and stability in Central Asia is an important concept, and those who can bring security and stability ought to be welcome in Central Asia,” he said.
UPDATE: Here’s Ann Scott Tyson’s Washington Post article. It has this interesting report on joint military exercises:
Russia and China should not view the U.S. military presence in Central Asia as expansionist, Myers and other senior U.S. officials said. “We have no territorial designs,” Myers said. “We’re not threatening them,” Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Douglas J. Feith said in an interview Monday. Feith rejected any timetable for a withdrawal, saying that unless there is a legal requirement to do so, the U.S. military operates based on “circumstances” and not “dates.”The strain in U.S.-Uzbek military ties was underscored yesterday by Uzbekistan’s absence from a regional cooperation exercise begun by U.S. Central Command with several other Central Asian states.
Uzbekistan will not participate in the July 14-27 exercise focused on counterterrorism and border security at Suffolk, Va., although Kyrgyzstan — whose leader this week also questioned the ongoing presence of U.S. forces — will join the event. Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Pakistan are also taking part, and Turkmenistan will send observers, said a release from U.S. Central Command, which oversees U.S. forces in the Middle East, Horn of Africa and Central Asia.
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Has the U.S. done anything to improve the security of the Cnetral Asian states? It copperated with the Taliban in 1990s, now sits in Afghanistan as opium harvests keep increasing, tries to overthrow the local governments, and keeps raising the boogey man of Russian “imperialism”…billions of $ go to Central Asia from its millions of workers in Russia and Russian investments in the region count in billions more. U.S. money for the base in Kyrgyzstan can probably just covern the environmental damage done by cargo planes dumping fuel. Finally, any idea that Uzbekistan is being bullied by Russia and China is a fantasy. Is that how Uzbekistan responds to pressure, by caving in? Just ask the U.S. Uzbekistan joined SCO, and was responsible for at least half of the raprochement bewteen Russian and Uzbekistan during 2003-2005…that’s why U.S. suddenly realized that Karimov was a bad dictator…so they began to flirt with extremists, as they had done with Al-Qaeda, Ansar-Islam in N. Iraq, and Taliban.