NATO Liaison Officer for Central Asia visits freight terminal in Termez
NATO Liaison Officer for Central Asia Rosaria Puglisi gathered Allied ambassadors and defence attachés in Uzbekistan for a visit to the road and railway freight terminal in Termez on 3 February.
The terminal is located along the brief stretch of Uzbekistan’s border with Afghanistan. It hosts seven pieces of movement-handling equipment provided by NATO within the framework of the May 2012 reverse transit agreement between the Alliance and Uzbekistan.
The equipment was delivered in September 2014. It includes forklift trucks, a crane and some contraband inspection kits. Assemblage and personnel training was carried out in November 2015.
With the reverse transit from Afghanistan complete, it is now expected that the equipment will be used to facilitate and inspect commercial freights to and from Afghanistan. These will include mainly gas and oil, construction material and food.
These assets, worth almost €2 million, were funded by the NATO Security Investment Programme.