AKIPRESS.COM - President Almazbek Atambayev explained the reason behind the expulsion of US military base from Kyrgyzstan: "Because we offended our neighbors, two greatest powers."

Speaking at the state awards ceremony on November 22, Atambayev said "whenever I did anything, I understood that I was making very strong enemies."

"Nobody believed that, including the Americans. Perhaps, they would help us and help us even more, but we offended two neighboring great powers  – Russia and China," Atambayev said.

"Maybe uncle Sam would help us. But we must be friends with our neighbors in the first place. Especially with such great powers as Russia and China," he said.

"Sometimes I had to ruin relations. And don't think that I was happy when I understood that Karimov would never forgive me. And don't think that I did not know that Nazarbayev will never forgive me when I prepared for delivering a speech on the rostrum at the UN. Because we're the sovereign state," he said.

The US military base in Manas was opened in December 2001 to support US military operations in the war in Afghanistan. The US forces vacated the Manas air base in early June 2014, at which time control of the base was handed over to Kyrgyz authorities. The US lease officially expired in July 2014.