Russia Allows NATO Vehicles Transit to Afghanistan

Press TV, Thu Nov 25, 2010 2:29PM

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov (R) shakes hands with his Afghan counterpart Zalmay Rasul in a news briefing in Moscow, November 25, 2010. Russia will let NATO take armored vehicles to Afghanistan through its territory under an expanded transit deal, Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov has said.

The new deal was sealed at a landmark Russia-NATO summit in Lisbon last Saturday. The deal is expected curtail NATO's dependence on Pakistan as a transit country and boost the flow of Western military supply shipment to the front lines of Afghanistan.

The alliance already uses routes through Russia and neighboring Central Asian republics but the current agreements only allow for the transportation of supplies such as food and fuel.

“The simplified procedure has been expanded to include vehicles with fortified anti-mine protection for first and foremost moving civilian personnel” Lavrov told a Thursday news briefing with his Afghan counterpart Zalmay Rasul.

The transit agreement stops short of opening the Russian route for weapons for the NATO mission in Afghanistan.

Russia's representative to NATO Dmitry Rogozin stressed that Russia had no intention of ever letting the alliance use its territory to transfer weapons.

“We gave absolutely no permission for NATO to transfer combat equipment through Russia by rail -- and we will give no such agreement."

Moscow and NATO broke off all contacts two years ago following Russia's brief war with its NATO-aspiring neighbor Georgia.

A NATO summit held in Portugal last week aimed to restore the two sides' strained relations.

During a meeting in the Portuguese capital of Lisbon on Saturday, Russia agreed to cooperate with NATO on a missile system and other security issues, an agreement which is considered as a step toward putting aside their Cold War era hostilities.

However, many analysts believe that NATO and Russia are far from resolving the problems they are faced with.

MAG/ZHD/AKM

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