BISHKEK. April 18. (Interfax) - Bishkek will continue to strengthen regional security after the U.S. Transit Center leaves Kyrgyzstan, Kyrgyz Foreign Minister Erlan Abdyldaev said.
"The Transit Center pullout from the Kyrgyz territory does not stop international and our efforts to deter the threats and challenges coming from Afghanistan," Abdyldaev said in an interview with newspaper Vecherny Bishkek on Friday.
Kyrgyzstan is set "to carry on the fight on terrorism and drug trafficking in collaboration with the international community," the minister stated.
"We are ready to continue rendering humanitarian support to the Afghan government in its stabilization attempts," the minister said.
"Unfortunately, such phenomena as terrorism, extremism, drug trafficking and organized crime, which are coming from Afghanistan, jeopardize regional stability and tend to escalate," he said.
"The scope of threats Afghanistan is dealing with goes far beyond its national borders and requires joint and coordinated moves of the entire international community," Abdyldaev said.
The Kyrgyz foreign minister added that additional air units had been deployed at the Kant airbase, an airborne element of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) Collective Rapid Reaction Force (CORF), with the purpose of security of Kyrgyzstan and Central Asia as a whole.
"I can assure you that this work will contribute to the strengthening of the combat potential of Kyrgyzstan's defense and law enforcement entities. These measures build up the defense capacity and national security of our country," the minister said.
He also said that Kyrgyzstan and Russia had reached an intergovernmental agreement "on the delivery of military hardware and armaments for the Kyrgyz Armed Forces and Russia would supply various kinds of armaments this year." "Specialists from the defense ministries have determined the range of military hardware and armaments Kyrgyzstan needs and updated the delivery dates," he said.
The U.S. Transit Center is due to leave Kyrgyzstan in early July 2014 after having been stationed at the Bishkek Manas International Airport for five years.