BISHKEK – Russia and the United States will build separate training centres in southern Kyrgyzstan to counter the threat to regional security from Islamist militants, Kyrgyz President Roza Otunbayeva said on Tuesday.
Kyrgyzstan, the only country where both Russia and the United States have military airbases, borders China and lies on a drug trafficking route out of Afghanistan. The predominantly Muslim nation of 5.4 million is split culturally and ethnically.
It remains tense after the violent revolt that toppled its president last April and ethnic clashes in the south in June, when at least 400 people were killed. While ethnic hatred and mistrust between Kyrgyz and Uzbeks keeps tension in the south on the boil, the growing threat of Islamist militancy in next-door Tajikistan and Uzbekistan is adding to instability in Central Asia, Otunbayeva said.
