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No giving up on gas

Ever since India signed an agreement with the United States on civil nuclear cooperation in July 2005, busybodies in Washington have taken it upon themselves to dispense unwanted advice and guidance to New Delhi on the foreign policy front. In fact, this trend began even before the nuclear deal was struck: Condoleezza Rice told her Indian counterparts in March 2005 that the gas pipeline from Iran was a bad idea and should be dropped. The latest example of attempted arm-twisting is the letter written by seven Congressmen to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. It is a crude threat to place obstacles in the path of civil nuclear cooperation if India refused to end its energy and defence relations with Iran. Until now, the focus of pressure was mainly on the Iran-Pakistan-India pipeline project but the letter written by Congressman Tom Lantos and his colleagues also finds the idea of India buying liquefied natural gas from Iran unacceptable. Washington clearly is incensed by the fact that Iran, Pakistan, and India have made real progress in nailing down the financial and technical parameters of the pipeline project.

If a trilateral agreement is reached, the Bush administration will find itself in a politically awkward position. It must then either acquiesce in the project or threaten sanctions against its "strategic partner," India, and its major non-Nato ally, Pakistan. That is why it would much rather have New Delhi walk away from Tehran, ostensibly on its own volition, and look exclusively to the U.S. for energy security. A reminder of just how unwise and demeaning to national sovereignty such a decision would be is provided by the news that a consortium of Indian public sector oil companies has made a major gas discovery in Iran's Farsi exploration block. To be sure, the gas belongs to Iran and not India and it is up to the Iranians to decide what to do with it. But given India's position as a stable, long-term consumer of natural gas, there is no reason why such discoveries cannot be used by New Delhi to push the envelope as far as gas sales are concerned. Aside from the pipeline project, India and Iran have signed an agreement for the annual import of five million tonnes of LNG. There is a dispute over pricing but it can be quickly resolved if both sides invest the necessary political goodwill. As its negotiations with Washington over the `123 agreement' enter the final phase, New Delhi must have the courage and confidence to push simultaneously for ending its international isolation in the civilian nuclear field and for extended cooperation with Iran in hydrocarbons. Under no circumstances should gas in hand be traded for the prospect of nuclear cooperation.

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