Expanding the Afghan effort in the right way
Monday, January 19, 2009 at 2:06AM FRONT PAGE: "U.S. to Widen Supply Routes In Afghan War," by Thom Shanker and Richard A. Oppel Jr., New York Times, 31 December 2008.
Details finally emerging about CENTCOM talking to the Russians about opening up new logistical links through Central Asia to Afghanistan, being no longer willing to rely so much on the Khyber Pass.
Russia is the principal source of fuel for the alliance's needs in Afghanistan,and the Kremlin already allows shipment of non-lethal supplies bound for Afghanistan to travel across Russian territory by ground.
Now NATO is talking with Moscow about lifting that limitation and NATO's chief spokesman says:
Those talks are going well. The Russian Federation has publicly and repeatedly made it clear that this is an issue of strategic interest to them, and that despite disagreements we have over other issues, this area of cooperation has been walled off and preserved. We expect it to be deepened.
Mature, sensible stuff.
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