NATO has opened a new route to deliver supplies to Afghanistan and to solve the Afghan issue effectively and fast. The route passes through the Russian Federation and the Central Asia.
 
At present, 140 thousand NATO troops are serving in Afghanistan. Earlier, NATO supplied military cargo and other goods basically through the Pakistani city of Karachi, the administrative centre of the province Sind. The need for searching a new route is stipulated by the complicated security situation, especially on the Afghan-Pakistani border. In view of this, NATO decided to diversify its supply routes to Afghanistan. “We will take the first opportunity use all possible routes for delivering supplies,” NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said.

NATO mission has an opportunity to send cargo to Afghanistan through Russia under an agreement between the Presidents of Russia and the U.S., Dmitry Medvedev and Barack Obama. Although the agreement was concluded almost a year ago, NATO has recently started using the air route over Russia to deliver military supplies. At present, the U.S. plans to redistribute the loads on the supply routes.

“We hope to send about 50% of cargo through the northern route which is shorter, safer and cheaper,” the director for Russia and Eurasian affairs of the U.S. National Security Council, Michael McFaul said. “Russia occupies a key position from the standpoint of fuel consumption and convenience of air transportation,… and also from the standpoint of our helicopter divisions. When people say that Russia does not help the U.S. in Afghanistan, I tell them please, glance at them comprehensively, and you will realize that we are supplementing each other,” he added.