The News reported that India and Pakistan were closer to an agreement on a pipeline to import gas from Turkmenistan that would signal a further warming of economic ties between the traditional rivals.

Turkmenistan has the world’s fourth largest gas reserves and energy hungry India and Pakistan are both eager to tap this source through the pipeline that would run through the Central Asian nation’s eastern neighbor, Afghanistan.

Mr S Jaipal Reddy oil minister of Indian said after a meeting in New Delhi with his Pakistani counterpart Mr Asim Hussain on energy cooperation that “There has been considerable progress in our talks.”

Reddy said that “Whatever deal we reach will apply to both countries. Pakistan would also consider a proposal to import Indian petroleum products and cited the savings in freight costs for Pakistan as several Indian refineries are located near the border.”

Deepening economic engagement between the nuclear armed neighbors which have fought three wars since independence from Britain in 1947 is seen as crucial to lasting peace in the troubled South Asian region. The Asian Development Bank estimated the cost of the TAPI pipeline in 2008 when the four countries signed a framework agreement at USD 7.6 billion.

Mr Reddy said that conflict racked Afghanistan, which also desperately requires gas, was very keen on the project and had pledged security for the pipeline. But energy experts have said instability in the region could yet scuttle the plan. We consider it a pipeline of peace. Everyone needs gas.

The minister indicated that an earlier plan for a pipeline to carry gas from Iran to Pakistan and then India was now on the backburner. We do what is more easily possible referring to the Turkmenistan project. Washington, which has spearheaded sanctions against Iran over its nuclear program, favors the TAPI pipeline and has pressured both India and Pakistan to hold off on a pipeline deal with Tehran.

Mr Reddy said that New Delhi was continuing to import oil from Iran and was not bound by new sanctions imposed by the European Union on the Islamic Republic earlier this week.

He said that we, as a member of the UN, are obliged to follow UN sanctions. Other sanctions imposed by big blocs of countries we can have some freedom there. Iran is India’s second-largest oil supplier after Saudi Arabia.

(Sourced from www.thenews.com.pk)