TASHKENT, Uzbekistan -- As the assault on Osama bin Laden and his Taliban protectors in Afghanistan continues into its second week, Uzbekistan, Afghanistan's neighbor to the north, is emerging as one of the most stalwart regional supporters of the U.S.-led military campaign. While other states in the region remained equivocal and noncommittal, Uzbekistan welcomed an early October visit from U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and announced that the U.S. could use its air space and several of its airfields. More than 1,000 U.S. troops are already stationed in Uzbekistan and last Friday the two countries announced the formation of a "qualitatively new relationship."
Few would have predicted after the Sept. 11 terror attacks that the only states willing to host covert U.S. military operations near Afghanistan would be Uzbekistan and Tajikistan. In fact, few knew anything about the two Central Asian countries; they have been far off the radar screen of American foreign policy.
TASHKENT, Uzbekistan -- As the assault on Osama bin Laden and his Taliban protectors in Afghanistan continues into its second week, Uzbekistan, Afghanistan's neighbor to the north, is emerging as one of the most stalwart regional supporters of the U.S.-led military campaign. While other states in the region remained equivocal and noncommittal, Uzbekistan welcomed an early October visit from U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and announced that the U.S. could use its air space and several of its airfields. More than 1,000 U.S. troops are already stationed in Uzbekistan and last Friday the two countries announced the formation of a "qualitatively new relationship."
Few would have predicted after the Sept. 11 terror attacks that the only states willing to host covert U.S. military operations near Afghanistan would be Uzbekistan and Tajikistan. In fact, few knew anything about the two Central Asian countries; they have been far off the radar screen of American foreign policy.