closure of supply routes costs US 6 times more

[BATMAN]

France says Uzbekistan is charging high fees for NATO transit - UzNews.net

France says Uzbekistan is charging high fees for NATO transit
French Defence Minister Gérard Longuet has announced that using the transit route across Uzbekistan to bring NATO troops out of Afghanistan will prove very expensive.

Minister Longuet made the statement in an interview with Lebanese newspaper L’Orient-Le Jour, but did not specify the sums of money involved.

However, the newspaper quoted recent communications which estimate that American is paying Central Asian countries around US$500 million annually for the transit of so-called non-lethal cargoes.

The paper claims that around 75% of non-lethal cargoes supplied to Afghanistan are transported via the Northern Distribution Network (NDN), which extends across Latvia, Russia, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan.

The French Defence Minister reportedly says that the high price being charged by Uzbekisatn means that this route is “not optimal”. He believes a corridor across Pakistan would be preferable for the withdrawal of troops.

NATO’s use of the latter route, across northern Pakistan through the Khyber region, was blocked after the air attack by American war planes on 26th November 2011 as a result of which 24 Pakistani soldiers died.

Before this incident, around 70% of fuel and logistical supplies were delivered to Afghanistan via Pakistan, the Voennyy Obozrevatel (Military Observer) website claims.

In early February Pakistan’s Defence Minister Ahmed Mukhtar announced that Pakistan was once again prepared to offer a transport corridor to supply NATO’s operations in Afghanistan, according to Voennyy Obozrevatel.

Germany rents an airbase in Termez in southern Uzbekistan, for which, as of 2011, it must pay Uzbekistan Euros 15.95 million annually, according to Bundeswehr figures.

 

[Al Bhatti]

Where is the problem? An extra $100 million per month is trivial!

Our corrupt politicians will waive off part of it if not all to show their loyalty to their master$.

 

[Al Bhatti]

Date Posted: 10-Feb-2012

Pakistan considers higher charges for reopening ISAF land supply route

Farhan Bokhari JDW Correspondent - Islamabad


Key Points
•ISAF's land supply route through Pakistan was closed following a US helicopter attack that led to the deaths of 26 Pakistan Army soldiers

•The route may be resumed, officials have indicated, but Pakistan is likely to charge higher tariffs for the ISAF supplies passing through the country

Pakistan Defence Minister Chaudhary Ahmed Mukhtar has publicly supported lifting the ban on 'essential supplies' passing through the country's land route for International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) troops in Afghanistan. The move signals a growing intent among the country's leaders to resume a relationship that was cut off in November 2011 after the killing of 26 Pakistan Army soldiers in a US helicopter attack.

A log-jam of oil tankers builds up in Karachi on 8 December following Pakistan's closure of the ISAF land supply route through Pakistan in November.

The November incident immediately prompted Pakistani authorities to order the closure of the ISAF land supply route through Pakistan. In recent years the US-led international NATO force has tried to build an alternative supply route through the former Soviet republics of Central Asia, but Pakistani officials claim the route through the country still accounts for more than half the supplies headed into Afghanistan.

For Pakistan's influential army, the November attack marked the violation of "an essential red line", according to senior army officers who stated that: . "An attack of this kind, where our troops were targeted without any provocation, is simply not acceptable," one senior Pakistan Army officer said in December.

On 8 February Mukhtar stated : "I am personally in favour of allowing essential supplies like food and medicines to go through." However, he repeated his earlier assertion that the supplies "must not be allowed to pass through without a realistic cost [in transit fees]". He added that: "We must consider ways of taking our relationship with the US forward."

A senior Pakistani Foreign Ministry official said that the Pakistani parliament's Committee on National Security, which has been reviewing the country's relations with the US, "is close to making its findings public".

Although the Foreign Ministry official refused to be drawn into the committee's expected recommendations, he confirmed that it "will definitely seek to slap much higher tariffs on trucks than in the past".

Pakistani officials previously stated that each ISAF truck paid an average of USD10 for each trip through Pakistan.

Mukhtar stated : "The rules of future conduct will have to be different than in the past," adding that "a much higher tax will have to be a very important consideration".

John F. Kennedy: I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the Earth.

Our politicians: I believe that this government along with it's fellow politicians from other parties should commit themselves to achieving the goal, before the term of Obama is over and before we may be thrown out of the country, of increasing our bank balances.