Central Asian nations to provide passage to NATO from Afghanistan | WPN World People News

With Pakistan yet to re-open its supply routes, NATO has concluded agreements with the Central Asian nations of Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan to use their territory for evacuating vehicles and military equipment from Afghanistan.

The agreement will completely bypass Pakistan, which once provided the main supply route for the coalition forces and has blocked NATO from using its territory after 24 Pakistani soldiers were killed in US airstrikes last November.

The coalition will begin pulling its troops and equipment out of Afghanistan from later this year. NATO plans to hand over the main responsibility for the war against the Taliban to the Afghan army and police by mid-2013 and withdraw its troops by the end of 2014.

NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said that NATO now considers Central Asia and its Russian-built roads to be the best route out of Afghanistan.

"These agreements will give us a range of new options and the robust and flexible transport network we need," Rasmussen said according to AFP.

The announcement indicates that the supply link through Pakistan, which is about six times cheaper, may not be reopened at all.

Pakistan, which last month said that talks to reopen the land route were on, has been demanding a major hike in charges to allow each NATO truck to pass through its territory.

Source: Central Asia News.Net