Govt allows Nato to ship food to Afghanistan

Pakistan announced on Tuesday that it has temporarily allowed Nato to ship perishable food to its troops in Afghanistan, a sign of thawing tensions following American air strikes last year that accidentally killed 24 Pakistani soldiers. Pakistan closed its Afghan border to Nato supplies in response to the deadly November 26 attack on two of its border posts. The closure has been a headache for coalition forces, who have had to spend much more money to get goods to Afghanistan using alternative routes. Defence Minister Ahmed Mukhtar said the government would only allow Nato to ship perishable items for a limited time and has asked the coalition not to order any more. He did not indicate when the approval was given. The US and Pakistan still disagree over who should be blamed for the November attack, but there have been growing signs that relations are improving. The move to allow food items to enter Afghanistan could be a precursor to opening the border altogether. Pakistan’s parliament is expected to vote on a revised framework for relations with the US this week that could pave the way for the government to reopen the supply line. Also, senior Pakistani officials have said in recent days that the government should fully reopen its border to Nato supplies as long as it can negotiate better fees from the coalition. Pakistan security forces met with their Nato and Afghan counterparts on Tuesday to discuss improving security for the upcoming coalition convoys, said spokesman for the paramilitary Frontier Corps Saeed Ahmed. They met in the city of Chaman in southwestern Balochistan province, one of Pakistan’s two Afghan border crossings. For most of the 10-year war in Afghanistan, 90 per cent of supplies shipped to coalition forces came through Pakistan, via the port of Karachi. But over the past three years, Nato has increased its road and rail shipments through an alternate route that runs through Russia and Central Asia. The northern route was longer and more expensive, but provided a hedge against the riskier Pakistan route. Before the accidental American air strikes on November 26, about 30 per cent of non-lethal supplies for US and coalition troops in Afghanistan travelled through Pakistan. The US has since increased the amount of supplies running through the northern route, but this has cost it a lot more money. Pentagon figures showed that the alternative transport was costing about $104 million per month, $87 million more per month than when the cargo moved through Pakistan.