US holds Caucasus talks on transit to Afghanistan: embassy
03/09/2009

BAKU (AFP) – US military officials have held talks with government and
business representatives from Turkey, Georgia and Azerbaijan on the
transport of supplies to Afghanistan, the US embassy in Baku said
Tuesday.

The two days of talks in Baku, which concluded Tuesday, were aimed to
"coordinate transportation issues that will facilitate the shipment of
supplies to US, NATO and partner military forces operating in
Afghanistan" through the Caucasus region, the embassy said in a
statement.

It noted that the talks focused on "non-lethal supplies" and that "no
military personnel are involved in the actual transportation of
supplies through the Caucasus."

The United States has been seeking new transit routes to supply
coalition forces in Afghanistan amid growing instability in Pakistan,
its main transit route, and the announcement by Central Asian nation
Kyrgyzstan last month of the closure of a key US airbase on its
territory.

There are nearly 70,000 international soldiers in Afghanistan helping
the government fight an extremist insurgency led by the Taliban, who
were in power between 1996 and 2001.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress