Uzbekistan: Afghan Supply Train Makes Way Through Uzbek Territory

Uzbekistan is allowing the transit of non-military goods bound for US troops in Afghanistan. President Islam Karimov confirmed February 25 that a train full of cargo was rattling its way across the domestic rail network.

Earlier, a spokesman for Kazakhstan Ministry of Emergency Situations said the train, which left Latvia on February 19 laden with US-owned supplies, had exited Kazakhstan "without problems" and was now in Uzbekistan.

"Uzbekistan has agreed to allow the transit of non-military, I stress, non-military goods through the territory of Uzbekistan to Afghanistan in accordance with existing Uzbek laws," the Russian news agency Interfax quoted Karimov as saying.

Part of the cargo will be unloaded at the Uzbek border city of Termez and transferred to Tajikistan to avoid a "choke hold" at the Uzbek-Afghan border, a US military official told EurasiaNet.

Karimov also confirmed that a major construction project to build a rail link between Termez and Mazar-i-Sharif in Northern Afghanistan had been revived. The 80-kilometer rail spur, including a bridge over the Amu-Darya River, was first proposed in 2004. The project was mothballed in 2005 following Andijan events, which caused a rupture in US-Uzbek relations.