Kyrgyzstan ends US lease of Manas airbase

A vast majority of lawmakers in Kyrgyzstan have voted to end the US lease of an airbase used for the transfer of American troops to Afghanistan.

On Thursday, the Kyrgyz lawmakers voted ninety-one to five in favor of ending the agreement to lease the Manas airbase in June 2014. The bill will take effect after being signed by the Kyrgyz president.

The move dashes US hopes of holding the base in exchange for paying more rent.

Washington has been paying sixty-million dollars annually for the base. All US troops moving in and out of Afghanistan travel through Manas.

The base, located outside the Kyrgyz capital Bishkek, had been set up to assist US-led troops in Afghanistan.

Washington has been using the military installation as a transit point, for transferring troops and equipment into and out of Afghanistan since 2001.

The closure of the strategic airbase is likely to jeopardize supplies to US troops in Afghanistan.

In late 2010, then-US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said that Washington would not consider closing its Manas transit center until troops were pulled out of Afghanistan in 2014.