Afghanistan: Central Asian States Now Allowing Military Cargo Bound for US, NATO Forces

Signaling a sense of strategic urgency to counter recent Taliban gains, the Northern Distribution Network is being adapted to handle the transit of weaponry and hardware destined for US and NATO troops fighting in Afghanistan.

The Northern Distribution Network (NDN) started out as a conduit for non-military supplies, including humanitarian assistance and reconstruction materials. [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive].
But with the strategic situation for US and NATO troops in Afghanistan becoming more challenging, the scope of NDN's operations is expanding. [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive].

The United States has secured "lethal transit" deals with Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan, Tom Tanner, the US embassy spokesman in Astana told EurasiaNet on October 13. Both the Kyrgyz Ministry of Defense and the US Embassy in Bishkek confirmed earlier that the Manas Transit Center is facilitating the shipment of military freight going to Afghanistan.

Permission to use Manas in this way was granted under the terms of the new agreement struck between Washington and Bishkek on June 23, and did not need to be negotiated separately, the US embassy revealed. [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive].

"Our agreement with the Kyrgyz on lethal transit is similar to the one we have with Russia. Shipments by vehicle or rail are covered in Kyrgyzstan per the Transit Center agreement, no separate agreement is needed," a spokeswoman for the US embassy said on October 10.

A representative for the Kyrgyz Ministry of Defense added, "So far, we have an agreement on the transit of military goods with the States. The agreement includes not only military, but also transit of humanitarian and medical goods."

The Kyrgyz government is set to approve new agreements on the use of the Manas Transit Center with NATO members, France and Spain, two countries that were served with eviction notices in February. American forces were due to vacate the facility in mid-August; French and Spanish personnel were scheduled to depart on October 13.

A representative for the Kyrgyz Defense Ministry told EurasiaNet that the prospective arrangements with France and Spain are "only projects." The draft agreements are currently with the Foreign Ministry for consideration. But Kyrgyzstan will almost certainly permit the NATO members full use the country's infrastructure for both military and non-military supplies, a European diplomatic source told EurasiaNet. "It's being worked on," he said.

Russia also allows France, Spain and Germany to ferry military goods through its territory by rail and by air.

Kazakhstan's president, Nursultan Nazarbayev, and his French counterpart, Nicholas Sarkozy, agreed on October 6 to open Kazakhstani air and land corridors to French troops and weaponry bound for Afghanistan. [See related Eurasia Insight story].

US military equipment can transit through Russian territory by air or land, and at least one test flight was flown in October. "This flight is the result of an agreement between the United States and the Russian Federation reached during the presidential summit in Moscow in July about transit of lethal material through Russian airspace," the State Department said in a statement on October 8.

Tajikistan and Washington signed an agreement for the transit of non-military goods by road and rail in February. But so far, it appears there are no intentions of sending shipments of weapons, ammunition or military hardware to Afghanistan via Tajikistan. Local observers suggest that the tenuous security situation in some parts of Tajikistan makes it too risky to send arms shipments.

Whether or not Turkmenistan is permitting the transit of military goods is unknown. What is known is that Ashgabat permits the transit of large volumes of jet fuel, enabling air operations in Afghanistan to keep up with the recent surge in combat activity.

The initial agreement between NATO and Russia concerning the transit of non-military supplies by rail hints that Serhetabat, a junction in Turkmenistan's Mary Province also known as Kushka, could become the southern most border crossing available to the US and NATO should military planners want to diversify the NDN further.

According to a copy of the "Unilateral Letter of Transit Through Russian Territories" obtained by EurasiaNet, a document which was signed on March 19, 2008, by Robert Simmons, NATO's troubleshooter for the Caucasus and Central Asia, the transit of supplies into Afghanistan via Turkmenistan "is possible" if Turkmen Railways notifies Russian Railways of terms and conditions.

Of the eight other direct rail routes to Afghanistan approved by Russian Railways, each one passes through Kazakhstan and ends in Termez, Uzbekistan.

On October 12, Robert Blake, American Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs, met with Uzbek President Islam Karimov in Tashkent to discuss "a wide range of issues of mutual interest in the fields of politics, security, the economy and human dimension," according to a statement from the US Embassy in Tashkent.