Britain is seeking transit accords with central Asian countries to enable it to ship billions of dollars of military equipment home from Afghanistan after 2014 while lessening its reliance on the uncertain Pakistan route, officials said on Tuesday. British Defence Secretary Philip Hammond visited Kazakhstan on Monday where he signed an agreement allowing overflight access to transport military equipment to and from Afghanistan, Britain’s Ministry of Defence said.
Hammond and Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev also agreed to start negotiations on an agreement allowing military equipment to be transported overland. The agreements are intended to give British forces a route to ship some 11,000 containers and 3,000 armoured vehicles back to Britain.