Pakistan and Turkmenistan have reiterated the commitment to implement the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) Gas Pipeline Project at the earliest, Radio Pakistan reported.
Pakistani Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Hina Rabbani Khar met with Turkmen Deputy Foreign Minister Vepa Hajiyev in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, where they attended a regional conference on Afghanistan.
They reviewed the entire spectrum of bilateral relations and expressed their satisfaction over the level of engagement, the information said. They also discussed measures to enhance connectivity, trade and investment.
Turkmenistan, Pakistan and Afghanistan revived the trilateral gas pipeline project in December 2002, with India joining six years later. TAPI was expected to supply 1.325 bcm/d to Pakistan and India each and 0.5 bcm/d to Afghanistan.
Turkmenistan claims to have completed its section of the pipeline. Now the project is stuck in Afghan territory, as negotiations with the new Taliban government in Kabul, which almost bloodlessly seized power in Afghanistan in 2021, have started almost from scratch.
Security issues for the project remain pressing, as the regional infrastructure is threatened by the Islamic State's Khorasan affiliate. Potential investors, for their part, await international recognition of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan. Islamabad is trying to change the situation.
Pakistan's Minister of State for Petroleum and Natural Resources, Musadik Malik during his recent visit to Saudi Arabia, urged that country's companies to support TAPI.
"If Saudi capital or some multilateral funding mechanism was brought into the project it could be materialized which would transform the energy and security landscape of the regio," Business Recorder quoted the official as saying.
Credits: Eziz Boyarov, Ashgabat
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