Reuters
October 22
zbekistan has no plans to reopen a border bridge to allow humanitarian aid into Afghanistan but aid might be flown or ferried in instead, Foreign Minister Abdulaziz Kamilov said on Monday.
The Friendship Bridge in the southern city of Termez, around 60 km from the Afghan city of Mazar-i-Sharif, is the main border crossing between the two states, and was the route taken by the Soviet army when they marched into Afghanistan in 1979.
"If you mean the question of opening the bridge in Termez, then that question does not arise at the moment because of problems with security," Kamilov told journalists after talks with Romanian Foreign Minister Mircea Geoana, chairman of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe.
But he said aid deliveries to Afghanistan would go ahead by other routes.
"We already have experience providing this kind of assistance and we do have several options for delivering it," he said, adding that aid could be sent across the Amu Darya river by ferry or, more probably, flown in by helicopter.
Uzbekistan is currently believed to be hosting around 1,000 U.S. troops from the 10th Mountain Division, and has said it will allow them to use airspace and a single airbase for search and rescue and humanitarian purposes only.
But the government in this often secretive country has not given any details on their movements, or where they are deployed.
Diplomatic activity is on the increase in Tashkent, with Turkey's foreign minister visiting earlier in the day and U.N. Emergency Relief Coordinator Kenzo Oshima due on Tuesday.