01:15Kyrgyzstan: USAID projects will be affected by cancelled treaty, says Foreign Ministry
Kyrgyz Deputy Foreign Minister Emil Kaikiyev explained how Kyrgyz Prime Minister Temir Sariyev's decision to renounce a 1993 bilateral agreement with the United States would affect the US Agency for International Affairs (USAID) in Bishkek, Wednesday.
Kaikiyev explained that, under the agreement, "the Kyrgyz side has facilitated the implementation of the promotion of the programmes of the United States through the exemption from fees, taxes, customs, duties and other tariffs on goods and supplies or services." However following the renunciation of the agreement, the US will lose these benefits which "will affect not only USAID projects but also other projects, which were based on the given, renounced agreement."
On Tuesday, Prime Minister Sariyev ordered his cabinet to renounce the agreement, which sets the legal framework for US humanitarian and economic aid to be provided to Kyrgyzstan, after the United States honoured journalist and activist Azimzhan Askarov with a human rights award, the 'Human Rights Defender'. Askarov is currently serving a life sentence in Kyrgyzstan on charges of inciting ethnic hatred, creating mass disturbances and complicity to murder. The charges relate to the June 2010 violent clashes between Uzbeks and ethnic Kyrgyz in the south of the country, where more than 400 people were killed and another 80,000 displaced.
The renunciation of the bilateral agreement will come into effect from August 20, 2015.
01:15Kyrgyz Deputy Foreign Minister Emil Kaikiyev explained how Kyrgyz Prime Minister Temir Sariyev's decision to renounce a 1993 bilateral agreement with the United States would affect the US Agency for International Affairs (USAID) in Bishkek, Wednesday.
Kaikiyev explained that, under the agreement, "the Kyrgyz side has facilitated the implementation of the promotion of the programmes of the United States through the exemption from fees, taxes, customs, duties and other tariffs on goods and supplies or services." However following the renunciation of the agreement, the US will lose these benefits which "will affect not only USAID projects but also other projects, which were based on the given, renounced agreement."
On Tuesday, Prime Minister Sariyev ordered his cabinet to renounce the agreement, which sets the legal framework for US humanitarian and economic aid to be provided to Kyrgyzstan, after the United States honoured journalist and activist Azimzhan Askarov with a human rights award, the 'Human Rights Defender'. Askarov is currently serving a life sentence in Kyrgyzstan on charges of inciting ethnic hatred, creating mass disturbances and complicity to murder. The charges relate to the June 2010 violent clashes between Uzbeks and ethnic Kyrgyz in the south of the country, where more than 400 people were killed and another 80,000 displaced.
The renunciation of the bilateral agreement will come into effect from August 20, 2015.