US and Pakistan reached a deal on Tuesday to reopen NATO’s vital supply routes into Afghanistan, seven months after Islamabad decided to close these routes because of the US’s airstrike which killed 24 Pakistani soldiers. US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said, in a telephone call, her Pakistani counterpart Hina Rabbani Khar informed her that Pakistan will reopen the supply routes. Clinton also apologized for a November airstrike and the losses suffered by the Pakistani military. She was committed to working closely with Pakistan and Afghanistan to prevent this from happening again.

Pakistan’s Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf said on Tuesday that continued closure of the routes harmed Islamabad’s relationship with Washington and NATO members. He said an ending of the blockade will help stabilize quickly the situation in Afghanistan, Pakistan as well as the whole South Asia region. Islamabad had been demanding an apology by the US before it reopened the routes. The blockade had forced NATO to rely on more northern expensive routes through Russia and Central Asia and costing the US military about $100 million a month.