— NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen in Brussels on Monday. Actual message: We don’t need you, Pakistan. It breaks Islamabad’s iron grip on the main routes for the U.S. and its allies to pull out their gear as their role winds down in Afghanistan. Bad news for Pakistan’s transportation industry, and all the bribes, graft and corruption it nurtured.
“We also reached agreement on reverse transit from Afghanistan with three Central Asian partners: Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan. These agreements will give us a range of new options and a robust and flexible transport network we need.”