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Obama: International community supports Afghanistan exit strategy
Washington is also hoping that Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari will agree to reopen key NATO supply routes into Afghanistan closed in November after US air strikes killed 26 Pakistani troops.
But the US-Pakistani talks on reopening vital supply routes for NATO forces in Afghanistan have stumbled over Islamabad demand to charge steep fees for trucks crossing the border, a senior US official told AFP.
The official confirmed that Pakistan has proposed an exponential increase in fees, from the current rate of about US$250 per truck to “thousands of dollars.”
“That’s, in a word, unacceptable,” he said.
Governments are feeling the pinch as Europe’s debt crisis forces budget cuts across the board, and to cope NATO will announce more than 20 joint projects to pool military hardware as part of a so-called “Smart Defense” initiative.
NATO has touted a planned US-led missile shield for Europe as a shining example of military cooperation.
A first step to the shield will be the announcement at the summit of an “interim capability” putting a US warship armed with missile interceptors in the Mediterranean, and a radar system based in Turkey under NATO command.
Copyright 2012 AFP.
