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Pakistan, India begin talks on pipeline
By agencies
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Monday, 06 June 2005, 19:30 IST
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan and India today began talks on a proposed pipeline that would bring natural gas to both countries from Iran, officials said.
The 1,735-mile pipeline proposed by Iran in 1996 has never gotten off the ground because of India's concern for the security of the pipeline in Pakistan.
However, tensions between India and Pakistan have eased in the past year and a half, and their governments have agreed to work toward building the pipeline, despite opposition from Washington.
Mani Shankar Aiyar, Indian petroleum and natural gas minister, and his Pakistani counterpart, Amanullah Khan Jadoon, began the two-day talks in Islamabad.
The officials are expected to discuss not just the $4 billion pipeline from Iran, but another proposed pipeline that would bring gas from Turkmenistan via Afghanistan a project long stalled because of instability in Afghanistan and selling of Indian diesel at subsidized rates.
India wants to import gas to meet the growing energy needs of its rapidly expanding economy, and Pakistan, which would also have access to the gas, would earn transit fees from a pipeline passing through its territory to India.
"Our need in India (for energy) is so huge that we are ready to get it from wherever it is," Aiyar said.
At the meeting, Aiyar said he informed the Pakistani minister that India is not facing any U.S. pressure to abandon the proposed Iran gas pipeline project.
"I certainly informed my counterpart that we were under no pressure," he said.