The United States and NATO are in talks with the central Asian nation of Tajikistan about supply routes of non-military equipment to Afghanistan, the country's foreign minister said Wednesday.
"Talks are ongoing with the United States and NATO," Tajik Foreign Minister Khamrokhon Zafiri said at a press conference.
"Tajikistan has colossal possibilities, there are five or six bridges on the Tajik-Afghan border over the Panj River for the transport of non-military cargoes," he added.
No agreements have yet been signed, but European countries and the United States have offered proposals and foreign officials are to visit Tajikistan soon to conclude the talks, Zafiri said.
Tajik President Emomali Rakhmon would visit Brussels in February to finalise the agreements, he added.
US General David Petraeus visited Tajikistan on Saturday to discuss the supply routes as the United States and NATO seek to step up operations in Afghanistan amid a growing Taliban-led insurgency.
The United States has been seeking to increase the number of supply routes to Afghanistan, including in post-Soviet Central Asia, as extremist attacks have plagued the main transport corridor through Pakistan.
Tajikistan, an impoverished former Soviet republic, has a 1,340-kilometre (830-mile) border with Afghanistan.
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