RAWALPINDI, Pakistan, July 31 (UPI) -- U.S. and Pakistani officials signed an agreement Tuesday to allow NATO supply convoys to cross Pakistan into Afghanistan until the end of 2015.
The memorandum of understanding gives both sides the option of extending the deal in one-year intervals beyond Dec. 31, 2015, and would apply to other NATO nations if they enter separate agreements with Pakistan, The Washington Post reported.
The 2015 end date is a year past when U.S. troops are to leave Afghanistan.
The agreement ends, for now, what has been one of the more turbulent chapters in U.S.-Pakistani relations while fortifying Pakistan's logistical cooperation as the war in Afghanistan winds down.
Pakistan ended its blockade of NATO supply routes earlier in July after closing the several hundred miles of roads to Afghanistan following a NATO air strike in November in which 24 Pakistani soldiers were killed.
The memorandum, signed in Rawalpindi, includes a ban on transporting lethal supplies and spells out security arrangements Pakistan is to provide, the Post said.
After the supply convoys resumed using the routes, Pakistan closed them down last week when a trucker was shot and killed in an attack attributed to the Pakistani Taliban, which vowed to kill any NATO truck driver.
Pakistani officials said Tuesday the convoys would resume only after the routes are suitably protected.
The containers will not be taxed but commercial carriers will have to pay fees, Geo News reported.
The Pakistan Defense Ministry will act as a central coordination authority, officials said.
