US, Pakistan fail to reach deal on supply routes ahead of NATO summit

The United States and Pakistan will not reach a deal on opening NATO supply routes before coalition leaders’ meeting in Chicago, two senior US officials said.
“There is no deal, and there won’t be one until President Asif Ali Zardari returns” to Pakistan, one senior official was quoted by CNN as having said, “and even that is not assured”.
The two sides had hoped to have a deal before Zardari arrived in Chicago this weekend to join NATO allies and other coalition partners for a meeting on Afghanistan. “The main thing is to get a deal,” one senior official said. “It’s less important as to when.”
With no deal, officials said US President Barack Obama would not meet Zardari. The two leaders were to possibly meet in a trilateral meeting with Afghan President Hamid Karzai on the issue of political reconciliation in Afghanistan. Pakistan’s support in reaching a deal with the Taliban is seen as critical to end the war in Afghanistan.
Ahead of the NATO summit on Afghanistan’s future, Pakistan was requesting $5,000 per truck as a condition to reopen the supply lines between the two South Asian countries, US officials said. The officials said Saturday that the United States would not agree to pay the stiff fees.
The new cost is a sticking point in weeklong negotiations between Washington and Islamabad to open the roads, known as the ground lines of communication or GLOCs. US officials say the fees are inflated. “We’re hopeful the GLOCs will be reopened soon, but we’re not going to agree to unreasonable charges. The Pakistanis understand that,” said a senior defense official who is not authorized to speak publicly about the talks.
Previously, the United States had been paying just a “small fraction” of the requested fee, officials said.
Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said the United States would refrain from such a deal due to budgetary restraints.
The routes offer a shorter and more direct route than the one NATO has been using since November that goes through Russia and other nations and avoids Pakistan altogether.
Pakistani Ambassador Sherry Rehman said Washington was paying more for the northern route. “Perhaps, if you look at the end route where your trucks move through much longer, but I believe the double of that amount is paid,” Sherry said.
But US officials said the nations along the northern route do not receive “Coalition Support Funds”, which should allow Pakistan to lower costs. The supply route will take on more significance as NATO troops prepare to depart Afghanistan by 2014 and will have to move heavy equipment and supplies out of Afghanistan for shipment from Karachi.
But US officials were less optimistic. Besides the cost, said one official familiar with the talks, there remained “quite a few other issues” to be worked out. He did not specify what those were.