Ambassador Tatiana C. Gfoeller. Alatoo News Program. Kyrgyz National Channel No.1. November 15, 2010.

November 19, 2010.

Alatoo News:  Madame Ambassador, hello.  Thank you for being willing to give us the interview.  We have several questions regarding the fuel supply contracts to the Transit Center at Manas International Airport.   

The first question is, President Otunbayeva in her September address has stated that the fuel supply to the Transit Center at Manas International Airport should be transparent.  In order to accomplish this she has suggested establishing a Russian-Kyrgyz joint enterprise which would supply fuel to the Transit Center.  But recently the Pentagon has announced the new bid for fuel supply contracts and recently announced the results of this solicitation and awarded the contract to Mina Corps and Restar Enterprise which were not being transparent during the previous supplies.  How can you comment to this? 

Ambassador Gfoeller:  Thank you very much. 

We at the embassy are aware of the Kyrgyz government's interest in supplying the Manas Transit Center with fuel.  In fact the new contract which was just awarded makes provision for that, for a Kyrgyz company to be able to supply up to 50 percent of the fuel to the Transit Center.  Right now as we speak the Kyrgyz and American sides are in discussions as to how best to be able to do this. 

Any day now I'm expecting a technical delegation to come from the United States to be able to discuss this with Kyrgyz technical experts.  I completely agree with President Otunbayeva in the sense that there needs to be maximum transparency in the awarding of such contracts.  I'd like to point out that the most recent contract was awarded in accordance with the Federal Acquisition regulations of the United States government in a completely transparent tender where any companies applied to join. 

Alatoo News:  After the announced awarding the contracts the Kyrgyz Ministry of Foreign Affairs as well as President Otunbayeva have called the United States government to suspend all fuel supplies until the end of the investigation by the Kyrgyz prosecution authorities.  How can you comment on this question? 

Ambassador Gfoeller:  As I'm sure you know, there were two investigations that are ongoing.  One was the Kyrgyz government investigation and the other was the investigation by the U.S. Congress of the whole fuel issue.  In fact the U.S. Congress sent a delegation to Kyrgyzstan.  I met with them, a lot of Kyrgyz officials met with them and they did some very thorough research in Kyrgyzstan about all these allegations of corruption around the fuel contract.   

The American investigation is now completed.  The investigators have provided their report to John Tierney who is a Congressman and the Chairman of the Subcommittee on National Security and Foreign Affairs.  He was the one who originally called for the investigation.  Mr. Tierney has now made an official statement in which he said that the investigation has not uncovered, not uncovered, any credible evidence of corruption regarding this contract or in fact of Bakiyev family involvement with this contract. 

Of course we continue to take such allegations extremely seriously.  I know that the allegations are continuing.  So if there is some credible evidence that can be presented to us then we will make sure that it goes obviously to the United States and there will be another investigation.  But as of this point a very thorough investigation which did talk to representatives of the Kyrgyz government, did not find any credibility. 

Alatoo News:  What can you say about the future operations of the Transit Center at Manas International Airport? 

Ambassador Gfoeller:  As you know, Manas is very important for Operation Enduring Freedom.  Almost all of our personnel enter and exit Afghanistan from Manas, and Manas also contributes to a lot of air refueling operations.  We on the American side are very grateful to the Kyrgyz people and to the Kyrgyz government for hosting our presence here at Manas. 

I think that this is also not just a kind move but a very intelligent move on the part of the Kyrgyz side.  Because it benefits Kyrgyzstan, it benefits America, and by the way, it benefits your neighbors including the Russian Federation.  I think we can all agree that stability in Afghanistan and stability in the region is very important for all of us.  And I think we can all agree that all of us, and I mean the United States, the Russian Federation, Kyrgyzstan and its neighbors have a common enemy in religious extremism and terrorism that could spill out of Afghanistan if Afghanistan became destabilized in narco trafficking. 

Those of your listeners who have heard me speak before, I always like to point out that we're not in a situation of a zero sum game here between Russia and the United States like sometimes people are saying, that it was the 19^th Century zero sum game between Great Britain and Russia.  In this case we literally have common interests and I very much welcome the increased involvement of the Russian Federation now in trying to stabilize Afghanistan.  I think that's a real breakthrough and I'm looking forward to more cooperation with the Russian Federation. 

Alatoo News:  My last question on a different topic regarding the recent elections to parliament.  How can you comment the results of the elections and the start of the new parliament? 

Ambassador Gfoeller:  I'm very grateful to you for giving me this opportunity to express my congratulations to the Kyrgyz people on the elections.  The events of April, of course, were very tragic.  There was a loss of life, and as I've said often, having lived here almost for three years I personally felt the loss of the lives of the Kyrgyz people who perished on that day. 

But at the same time, there was a silver lining, one could see it immediately.  Now this silver lining has really come to pass.  Which is it gave Kyrgyzstan another opportunity to really get back on the road to democracy.  And despite the yet again tragic events of June, Kyrgyzstan has slowly but surely been going step by step on this road to democracy.  We welcomed very much the referendum that happened, the constitutional referendum which affirmed a new constitution, affirmed a new president, and legitimized the provisional government.  We were very impressed with the parliamentary elections which were free and fair, I would say probably the best elections that have happened in Central Asia and even beyond Central Asia, in Eurasia. 

So I'm very much looking forward to working with the new parliament and with the new government. I hope that a new government will be formed soon.  And again, I would just like to congratulate the Kyrgyz people for having come out of a series of tragedies with something new and strong and that's an inspiration, I think, to the whole region. 

Thank you.

Alatoo News:  Thank you very much. 

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