Washington: US special envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan Marc Grossman said that United States and Pakistan will resume talks on the possible reopening of supply routes to Afghanistan after Pakistan completes its probe into an airstrike that killed 24 of its soldiers, media reported on Friday.
Briefing a meeting to Nato governing body, the North Atlantic Council, Grossman said that he respected the work of a Pakistani parliamentary commission, which recommended on Monday that Pakistan should demand an unconditional apology from the US before the routes are reopened. It also called for an end to American drone attacks inside Pakistan.
The Pakistani panel investigating the attack began its work in January and is expected to submit its recommendations to the government soon.
Grossman said that US would start its conversation with the government of Pakistan about how to go forward soon after investigation of Salala incident.
He further said that it’s important that many countries share the cost of creating ”a secure, stable and prosperous Afghanistan,” a key issue to be discussed at a Nato summit in Chicago in May.
The route from Pakistan’s port of Karachi to landlocked Afghanistan has been Nato’s main logistics link for its forces during most of the 11-year war. But over the last two years, the alliance has increasingly focused on the more secure routes from the north, through Russia and the Central Asian nations.
Today, almost all supplies are delivered overland through the so-called Northern Distribution Network. Last month, Pakistan, which had supported the Taliban in Afghanistan, sided with the United States after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, earning Pakistan billions of dollars in aid and ending its international isolation.
Grossman is on a tour of European capitals focused on securing funding for the Afghan security forces following the 2014 withdrawal of most US and Nato forces. The allies estimate the government will need $4.1 billion annually to pay for the 350,000-strong army and police.
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