India to host IPI pipeline talks to break Impasse
'Pakistan Times' Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI (India): India will host the next round of secretary-level talks on the Iran pipeline on July-3 with no consensus having emerged during the Islamabad trilateral meeting last month on the gas price and project framework, reports Inp.

As per the schedule of talks chalked out in January by India, Pakistan and Iran for the trilateral talks, Tehran was to have hosted the ministerial meeting this month after the secretary level meeting in Islamabad May 22-24.

But with no consensus emerging on the gas pricing and project structure issue, seen as crucial to formalising a ministerial level agreement on the estimated $7 billion pipeline project, further rounds of secretary level talks seem slated to be held.

‘Though Iran has revised their earlier offer of supplying gas at its border with Pakistan at over $8 per million British thermal unit (MBTU) and brought it down to $7.2 per MBTU, it is far above our proposal of $4.25 MBTU at the India border,’ a senior petroleum ministry official told mediamen.

‘There is not only $3 price difference between the two proposals but also around 700 km distance from where we want the gas to be delivered to India at our border with Pakistan,’ the official said.

Meanwhile, the CPI(M) has criticised the government for joining the US-sponsored Turk-menistan- Afghanistan-Pakistan (TAP) gas pipeline project, saying it showed the “new direction” of India’s foreign policy as Iran would have been a more secure and long-standing partner for the purpose.

Describing the TAP project as “uncertain and illusory”, party’s Politbureau member Sitaram Yechury said, “If the Iran pipeline is considered ‘insecure’, then the TAP passing through Afghanistan and Pakistan should be doubly so”.●