International - India & World   

India: pipeline will be a reality if nations agree on fuel price

Washington: Despite skipping a crucial tri-nation talk, India has expressed the hope that the Iran-Pakistan-India gas pipeline will become a reality if buyers and the seller agree on the fuel price. “I think if the price of the gas is agreed upon, the pipeline will become a reality,” Finance Minister P. Chidambaram said at an interactive session at the Peterson Institute for International Economics here.

India is not attending a Secretary-level meeting Iran is hosting in Tehran on September 27. It has said it will not take part in the tri-nation deliberations unless the transit fee issue is resolved with Islamabad.

New Delhi and Islamabad have reached a broad understanding on the transportation tariff payable to Pakistan for wheeling natural gas through a 1,035-km pipeline segment in that country, but they have not yet arrived at any agreement on a separate transit fee payable to Pakistan for allowing usage of its territory for the pipeline.

Irrespective of the Indian participation, Iran and Pakistan are going ahead with the meeting. “There is no politics. We wish to have a pipeline...and all three countries, to the best of my knowledge, are agreed in principle on the need [for] and feasibility of the pipeline. What is still not resolved is the price of the gas,” Mr. Chidambaram said.

New Delhi and Islamabad, which previously agreed on the price formula suggested by Iran, have differed with Tehran on its demand for price revision every five years.

Mr. Chidambaram said Salman Shah, adviser to the Pakistan Prime Minister, visited India three weeks ago and affirmed that Islamabad was committed to the pipeline. “In Iran, there has been some change of guard. I don’t know the details.” Mr. Chidambaram was critical of countries opposing the project. “We are disappointed that some country should advise us against the pipeline for other geopolitical reasons. We think that if Iran has gas, if India needs gas and Pakistan needs gas, there is nothing wrong in having an Iran-Pakistan-India gas pipeline.”

India’s economic performance did not hinge on the nuclear deal, but it was in its “self-interest” to raise the share of nuclear power. — PTI

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Stories in this Section

AQ Khan: Benazir stirs up a hornets’ nest
Help break cycle of violence: Rajapaksa
Political tension grips Pakistan
India: pipeline will be a reality if nations agree on fuel price
Border talks end

Copyright © 2007, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu