Brian O'Shea (Waterford, Labour)
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Question 21: To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs his views on the recent closure in Krygyzstan of the US air-base in Manas, and its implications regarding the situation in Pakistan and the conflict in Afghanistan. [15369/09]

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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On 19 February, the Kyrgyz Parliament approved a government order to close the Manas air-base operated by the United States. Manas, which is the only US base in Central Asia, is a key transit point for supplies to US operations in Afghanistan.

While the timing of the current announcement was a surprise, there have been question marks over the base's long-term survival since July 2005, when the Shanghai Co-operation Organisation (SCO), which includes among its members the countries of Central Asia along with Russia and China, passed a resolution calling for all non-SCO bases to be removed from Central Asia. Kyrgyzstan is also host to a Russian airforce base located a few miles from that operated by the US. The Russian Federation has made it clear that it does not favour a long-term US presence in Central Asia. The possible closure of the US base has been raised on several occasions, and the US has had to re-negotiate its arrangement with the Kyrgyz Government previously to enable the base to continue to operate.

I do not, of course, have specific information on the precise effects the closure of the air-base would have in operational terms on US activities in Afghanistan and Pakistan. However, I do not expect the closure of the base to diminish the importance attached by the new US Administration to a resolution of the conflict in Afghanistan. As the Deputy will be aware, President Obama on 27 March announced the results of the US Strategy Review on Afghanistan and Pakistan in which he committed additional military forces to the region but also outlined a shift in emphasis towards training and increasing the size of the Afghan security forces which would allow the Afghans to take responsibility for their own security. There is also strong emphasis in the new US Strategy, and in the conclusions of The Hague International Conference on Afghanistan held on 30 March, on the importance of stepping up international support for reconstruction and other non-military interventions in order to improve the daily lives of the Afghan people.

I welcome and support the changes of approach which the US and international community have agreed to adopt.