Afghanistan: US Military Working to Open Afghan Supply Spur in Caucasus

Having already opened a northern route for sending non-lethal goods to American and NATO troops in Afghanistan via Central Asia, the United States is now looking to establish a supply spur in the Caucasus.

The potential new supply route was the main topic of discussion during a two-day meeting in Baku that concluded March 10. Representatives of the United States, Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey participated in the discussions. No plans were formally announced. US diplomats merely indicated that the talks had been productive.

One Baku-based US diplomat, Terry Davidson, described Azerbaijan as a "bridge that joined the East and West," making it "only natural that a conference be held here [in Baku] to discuss the possibility of supplying Afghanistan," according to a report distributed by Azerbaijan's APA news agency.

Turkey is a NATO member that has played a leading role in Afghan military operations. Georgia and Azerbaijan, meanwhile, maintain a token military presence in the allied coalition there. Despite the participation of all three states in US-led military operations in both Afghanistan and Iraq, the Baku meeting discussed only the supply on "non-lethal" goods. A US Embassy statement likewise emphasized that military personnel would not be involved in the "actual transportation of supplies through the Caucasus."

The cautious rhetoric surrounding the Baku conference is likely related to a US desire to tread lightly in areas where Russia has a geopolitical interest. The US-Russian relationship, which has been prickly for the past few years, experienced a spike in rancor last summer in connection with Russia's war with Georgia. With Russian cooperation essential for maintaining the Central Asian supply route, US diplomats appear to be trying to avoid doing or saying anything that might strike a raw nerve in the Kremlin. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov was in Baku on March 11 for talks with Azerbaijani leaders.

The northern supply route involves the transit of goods bound for Afghanistan via rail by Russia and the Central Asian states of Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. Upon arrival in Uzbekistan some of the goods are to be shipped via trucks to Tajikistan before reaching their final destination in Afghanistan. The first rail shipment of non-lethal goods bound for Afghanistan left port facilities in Latvia in mid-February. [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive].

The Caucasus spur would feed supplies into the new northern network in Kazakhstan, apparently requiring goods to be loaded on and off ships traveling across the Caspian Sea.