Two NATO truckloads crossed into Afghanistan from Pakistan on Thursday, two days after Islamabad agreed to reopen the Alliance's supply routes it closed in response to the death of Pakistani soldiers in a cross-border air raid by foreign coalition forces stationed in Afghanistan last year.
Pak media quoting officials said at least two NATO containers passed through the Chaman border point, while many more trucks await clearance in the southern Pakistani port of Karachi to head towards NATO bases in the neighboring country.
Resumption of the overland supply route after a seven-month closure also marks reparation of ruptured U.S.-Pak relations.
The Pakistani government had already lodged strong protest against the unilateral U.S. raid into the country that killed al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden last year, and continuing U.S. drone strikes on its territory.
A cross-border attack by Afghanistan-based NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) on November 26 killed 24 Pak soldiers. Pakistan responded by closing the main overland supply routes for U.S. and NATO forces into Afghanistan, and suspended cooperation with the U.S. military.
U.S. logistics specialists quickly shifted to other means to supply the forces, but the routes through Pakistan are considered the most direct and cost-effective.
Washington and Islamabad have been negotiating to reopen those cargo routes, which the Pentagon considers important, both for the flow of supplies into Afghanistan, and the movement of equipment out as foreign forces draw down from Afghanistan. Afghan forces are slated to take over security responsibility in 2014, and ISAF will begin pullout in earnest later this year.
After months of negotiations, the breakthrough came on Tuesday during a telephonic conversation between U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and her Pak counterpart Hina Rabbani Khar, during which Clinton conveyed Washington's "deepest regrets" over the tragic incident.
Pakistan has agreed not to charge additional transit fees, but insisted that no lethal equipment will be allowed to transit Pakistan into Afghanistan unless it is meant to equip the Afghan national security forces.
Despite the reopening of NATO supply lines, Washington remains concerned over Pakistan's failure to act against militants who continued to launch attacks on Afghanistan from their safe havens on the south-western mountainous tribal borders of Pakistan.
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May 08, 2026 15:50 ET Manufacturing and services sector survey results and labor market data from main economies were the highlight on the economics news front this week. Factory orders and jobs report dominated the news flow in the U.S. Similarly, industrial production data from German garnered attention in Europe. In Asia, purchasing managers’ survey results from China and the central bank decision from Australia were in focus.