Pakistan suggests it may reopen NATO supply routes

Pakistan's foreign minister has suggested that Islamabad may reopen supply routes for foreign forces in Afghanistan, which were closed due to cross-border strikes last year on Pakistani soldiers. 

On November 26, 2011, 24 Pakistani soldiers were killed in US-led airstrikes on two army checkpoints in the northwestern tribal district of Mohmand, bordering Afghanistan

In response to the attack, Islamabad closed the border crossings used to transfer NATO supplies into Afghanistan and boycotted an international conference on Afghanistan held in the German city of Bonn on December 5, 2011.

"It was important to make a point," foreign minister Hina Rabbani Khar told a news conference in Islamabad. "Pakistan has made a point and now we can move on," she added.

She didn't say when Pakistan would reopen the crossings to the NATO forces, but her comments indicate that Islamabad is moving to meet US requests.

NATO relied heavily on the Pakistani supply routes into Afghanistan as other routes, largely through Russia and the Central Asian states, have proven to be too costly, both politically and economically.

However, Pakistanis have expressed opposition to any measure by the government to reopen the supply routes and have held massive demonstrations against it.