NATO urges Pakistan to keep supply routes open

Pakistani cooperation is also seen as vital nudging the Afghan Taliban into talks with the Kabul government.

BRUSSELS: Nato chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen urged Pakistan on Monday to keep open supply lines to Nato forces in Afghanistan despite anger over a US drone strike that killed Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) chief Hakimullah Mehsud.

“I feel confident that the Pakistani authorities will maintain open supply routes and transit routes because it is in Pakistan’s own interest to contribute positively to stability and security in the region,” Rasmussen told a news conference.

Pakistan is the main route to supply US troops in landlocked Afghanistan with everything from food and drinking water to fuel. Any closure could be a serious disruption as US and other Western forces prepare to withdraw most of their troops from Afghanistan by the end of next year.

Pakistani cooperation is also seen as vital in trying to bring peace to Afghanistan, in particular in nudging the Afghan Taliban into talks with the Kabul government.

Rasmussen declined to comment on the drone strike that killed Hakimullah but appeared to lend support to US actions, saying ‘terrorism constitutes a threat to the whole region’.

He said he believed the Pakistani authorities, including the government and the military, realised that it was in Islamabad’s interest to ensure peace and stability in Afghanistan. “The security of Afghanistan and Pakistan is inter-linked. There can’t be security in the one country without security in the other,” he added.

Meanwhile, the US Secretary of State John Kerry defended on Monday the drone strike that killed Hakimullah but added that Washington was sensitive to any Pakistani concerns. Agencies

Published in The Express Tribune, November 5^th, 2013.