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DTN News - NATO SUMMIT IN CHICAGO: Barack Obama Snubs Asif Ali Zardari At NATO
(NSI News Source Info) TORONTO, Canada - May 21, 2012: BARACK Obama has snubbed Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari despite inviting him to a NATO summit in Chicago, as a bitter dispute rages over supply routes that could disrupt the planned US troop withdrawal from Afghanistan.
The US President refused to meet Mr Zardari yesterday in the midst of Pakistan's refusal to compromise over increasing the fee for trucks to pass through its territory to Afghanistan from $US250 ($253) to $US5000.
Pakistan closed its borders and then demanded the huge price rise for moving US supply trucks through its territory after US air strikes killed 24 Pakistani soldiers in November.
Mr Zardari was invited to the NATO talks at late notice and US officials appear to have hoped a settlement of the transportation issue could have been reached before his arrival.
Instead, the conflict worsened yesterday.
It was made clear that Mr Obama was unwilling to meet Mr Zardari, and the diplomatic task was handed to US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
The dispute with Pakistan has forced unacceptable costs on the US as trucks transporting up to 40 per cent of equipment to and from Afghanistan have been forced to use a longer route through Russia, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan.
(Read complete strory on Defense-Technology News - Click on link undermentioned)
http://defense-technologynews.blogspot.ca/2012/05/dtn-news-nato-summit-in-chicago-barack.html
DTN News - NATO NEWS: NATO Invites Pakistan To Chicago Summit
(NSI News Source Info) TORONTO, Canada - May 16, 2012: NATO said on Tuesday it had invited Pakistan to a summit in Chicago next week, lifting a veiled threat that it might exclude the country from the talks on the future of Afghanistan.
"Allies decided to invite President (Asif Ali) Zardari of Pakistan to Chicago to the meeting on Afghanistan," NATO spokeswoman Oana Lungescu said in a statement.
"This meeting will underline the strong commitment of the international community to the people of Afghanistan and to its future. Pakistan has an important role to play in that future."
NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen suggested on Friday that Pakistan could be excluded from the May 20-21 summit if it failed to reopen the supply routes to Afghanistan that it closed after 24 of its soldiers were killed by a NATO cross-border air attack last November.
Rasmussen noted that other countries providing supply routes to NATO had been invited to the summit, which will map out a future for Afghanistan after most foreign combat troops are withdrawn at the end of 2014.
President Zardari's spokesman said he was considering whether to attend the Chicago summit and that the invitation was "unconditional and not linked to the opening of ground lines of communication for NATO or to any other issue."
Pakistan has demanded a formal apology from the United States for the attack before it reopens the supply routes, and has also called for an end to U.S. drone strikes on its tribal areas bordering Afghanistan.
Pakistan boycotted an international conference on Afghanistan in Bonn in December in protest against the NATO air strikes.
http://defense-technologynews.blogspot.ca/2012/05/dtn-news-nato-news-nato-invites.html
