Russia will allow NATO to transit armored vehicles to Afghanistan through its territory, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Thursday.
"The eased transit regulations have been extended to armored vehicles with anti-mine protection," Lavrov said after talks with his Afghan counterpart Zalmay Rasul in Moscow.
The new deal was sealed at the landmark Russia-NATO summit in Lisbon last Saturday. It will curtail NATO's dependence on unstable Pakistan as a transit country.
The alliance already uses routes through Russia and neighboring Central Asian republics but current agreements only allow for the transportation of non-lethal supplies such as food and fuel.
NATO has vowed to hand over responsibility for security in Afghanistan to the Afghans by the end of 2014.
MOSCOW, November 25 (RIA Novosti)
