US may opt for Russian route for Nato supplies
US may opt for Russian route for Nato supplies
LAHORE: As the Pakistani authorities have decided to claim approximately $600 million from the US-led Nato/Isaf forces stationed in Afghanistan as compensation charges for using the country’s extensive road network to transport food and military supplies to the war-torn Afghanistan, the Centcom has moved swiftly to open an alternate supply route to Afghanistan via Russia and Central Asia, bypassing the ambush-prone main supply routes through Pakistan.
The decision is set to hurt Pakistan in financial terms as Islamabad currently receives a huge reimbursement of economic and military services and logistic support provided to the United States. The high command of the US-led allied forces stationed in Afghanistan had earlier warned Pakistan that its failure to prevent rising terrorist attacks targeting the Nato/Isaf supply trucks travelling to Afghanistan via Pakistan could force them abandoning Pakistan as a key supply route for transportation of food and military supplies. Since 2002, three-quarters of all the military equipment and food supplies for the US-led allied forces had been reaching Afghanistan via Pakistan. Before Islamabad decided to suspend the Nato/Isaf supplies last week in the wake of the allied forces’ incursions into the country’s tribal belt, almost 75 percent of the ammunition, vehicles, foodstuff and around 50 percent of fuel for the 140,000-strong international forces fighting against the Mulla Mohammad Omar-led Taliban militia in Afghanistan were being transported via Pakistan.
Well informed diplomatic sources in Islamabad say the Centcom’s decision to choose an alternate supply route to Afghanistan was prompted by Pakistan’s refusal to give a timeline for the resumption of the Nato supplies, which remain suspended at the country’s Torkham border with Afghanistan for a full week now. The US-led allied forces had earlier apologised to the Pakistani authorities over their Thursday’s cross-border helicopters attack that killed three Pakistani soldiers and injured three others. Reacting sharply, Pakistan blocked the main land route Khyber Pass at Torkham for Nato convoys carrying supplies to Afghanistan.
However, the suspension of the Nato/Isaf supplies was not the only action taken by the Pakistani authorities. According to diplomatic sources, the decision makers in Rawalpindi and Islamabad further decided to claim $600 million from Nato/Isaf forces as compensation charges for causing damage to Pakistan’s extensive road network while transporting food and military supplies to Afghanistan since 2002.
The Pakistani authorities have decided to bill the Americans while maintaining that the country is suffering a huge loss of around $83 million annually due to the Nato/Isaf freight truckloads that have badly damaged the national highways network, for the last seven years. They have further argued that the average damage caused by Nato/Isaf on main routes leading to Afghanistan, was 20 percent of the total expenditure incurred on the repair and maintenance of the road infrastructure by the National Highway Authority.
Nevertheless, while ignoring the Pakistan demand for payment of compensation charges, the Centcom high command has decided to open an alternate supply route to Afghanistan via Russia and central Asia.
The diplomatic sources say the alternate supply route starts in the Latvian port of Riga, the largest all-weather harbour on the Baltic Sea, where container ships offload their cargo onto Russian trains. The shipments roll south through Russia, then southeast around the Caspian Sea through Kazakhstan and finally south through Uzbekistan until they cross the frontier into north Afghanistan. The Russian train-lines were in fact built to supply Russia’s own war in Afghanistan in the 1980’s.
It was actually in July 2010 that the Americans had finally convinced the Russians to let them use the said supply route. Previously Russia had only allowed the United States to ship non-lethal military supplies across its territory by train. The diplomatic circles say the development is important because it signals Russian willingness to indirectly support the US-led Nato/Isaf forces stationed in Afghanistan.
