US to build troop training centre in Tajikistan: envoy
The United States plans to build a facility for training local
troops in the ex-Soviet Central Asian state of Tajikistan, the US
ambassador said Friday, AFP reported.
"The plan... is almost 10 million dollars to build this national training centre for the Tajik armed forces," Ken Gross told journalists at a briefing in the capital, Dushanbe.
Gross said the facility would be run by the Tajik national guards' service and no US troops would be based there, though he said US military personnel could be brought in to assist in training.
"If requested, we might have people come in to help in training missions," the US envoy said.
The United States has in past years built training facilities, financed military programmes and established airbases in a handful of strategic ex-Soviet republics in Central Asia.
These include Georgia and Azerbaijan in the Caucasus as well as Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan in Central Asia. The US airbase in Uzbekistan was shut down by President Islam Karimov in 2005.
Russia has kept a close eye on such "military-to-military" contacts between the United States and neighbouring ex-Soviet republics, wary of any perceived US strategic encroachment into what the Kremlin has long regarded as its "sphere of influence."
The centre in Tajikistan is scheduled to open in 2011, although no contracts have yet been signed with the Tajik government, Gross said.
"The plan... is almost 10 million dollars to build this national training centre for the Tajik armed forces," Ken Gross told journalists at a briefing in the capital, Dushanbe.
Gross said the facility would be run by the Tajik national guards' service and no US troops would be based there, though he said US military personnel could be brought in to assist in training.
"If requested, we might have people come in to help in training missions," the US envoy said.
The United States has in past years built training facilities, financed military programmes and established airbases in a handful of strategic ex-Soviet republics in Central Asia.
These include Georgia and Azerbaijan in the Caucasus as well as Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan in Central Asia. The US airbase in Uzbekistan was shut down by President Islam Karimov in 2005.
Russia has kept a close eye on such "military-to-military" contacts between the United States and neighbouring ex-Soviet republics, wary of any perceived US strategic encroachment into what the Kremlin has long regarded as its "sphere of influence."
The centre in Tajikistan is scheduled to open in 2011, although no contracts have yet been signed with the Tajik government, Gross said.
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