Tajikistan Offers To Transit NATO Supplies To Afghanistan
U.S. Ambassador Jacobson
February 06, 2009
DUSHANBE -- U.S. Ambassador to Tajikistan Tracey Ann Jacobson has said after a meeting with President Emomali Rahmon that the Tajik leader "confirmed his readiness to offer the country's airspace for nonmilitary NATO supplies bound for Afghanistan."
The announcement comes after Kyrgyz officials announced they would order the closure of a U.S. air base at Manas that sends supplies and personnel to Afghanistan.
Jacobson also said that a bridge on the Panj River on the border between Tajikistan and Afghanistan would soon function 24 hours a day.
The bridge -- in the Panj district of Khatlon Province -- was funded by the United States at a cost of some $30 million.
Jacobson said the Tajik government proposed building another bridge in the Farkhor district of Khatlon Province that also borders Afghanistan.
She added that the Tajik and U.S. militaries will have two six-week joint training sessions this year for special forces in the Regar district bordering Uzbekistan.