Canberra, June 14 (ANI): The U.S. still hopes to reopen NATO supply routes to Afghanistan through neighbouring Pakistan despite securing new transit deals with three Central Asian states, NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen has said.
Pakistan banned trucks from carrying supplies to and from coalition troops in Afghanistan late last year in protest against a cross-border NATO air strike that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers, reports The Nation.
On Monday, the U.S. withdrew its team of negotiators from Pakistan without a new deal on re-opening the supply routes, signaling more tension between the two uneasy allies in the war on militancy.
Rasmussen said the NATO transit agreements with Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan would give NATO forces more flexibility ahead of the planned withdrawal of most foreign combat troops from Afghanistan by the end of 2014.
"Winding down a very comprehensive mission in Afghanistan is logistically quite a challenge, and to manage that we need as many transit opportunities as possible," he said.
However, Rasmussen also said officials were hopeful the transit route through Pakistan would be re-opened "in a not too distant future".
US officials have warned that resupplying troops in Afghanistan through the northern, Central Asian route could be up to two-and-a-half times more expensive.
That route could also require cooperation from Russia to ensure access to sea ports, but Rasmussen said NATO already had an agreement with Moscow. (ANI)
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