The need for a more reliable land link was highlighted when the Taliban blew up a bridge on the Pakistan-Afghanistan Highway on Tuesday. With 80 percent of all supplies flowing through this route and with attacks on convoys increasing, Washington is moving to repair relations with Afghanistan’s other neighbours.

Uzbekistan evicted the US military in 2005 after Washington and other Western governments called for an inquiry into the reported massacre of hundreds of civilians during a protest in Andijan. Stalled relations have served neither Uzbekistan nor the West, says US Ambassador Richard Norland. He insists, though, that the US is not turning a blind-eye to human rights abuses.

Norland stresses that the US has no intention of re-establishing a military presence in Uzbekistan, adding that there is no offer of US bases nor are there any requests. The report claims that Uzbekistan hopes to receive more money and greater economic cooperation from the West as Russia’s economic prospects decline.

Ethnic Uzbeks dominate northern Afghanistan. Also, members of the banned Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, which calls for the creation of an Islamic state in Uzbekistan, found refuge in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan, and later allied with Al Qaeda. Many have been killed, but Uzbek nationals are still known to be part of the insurgency in both Pakistan and Afghanistan.