February 03, 2002
Turkmenistan-India gas pipeline talks revive as Taliban fall
Indo-Asian News Service Moscow , 02-02-2002
Arun Mohanty
The talk of constructing a gas pipeline from landlocked Turkmenistan to India, expected to pass through Afghanistan, has revived in the wake of the collapse of the Taliban regime in Kabul.
A consortium comprising Japanese and US firms was working on a project that would link Turkmenistan's gas fields with India through neighbouring Afghanistan and Pakistan.
But nothing came of it because of instability in Afghanistan under the Taliban militia.
The emergence of a new government in Afghanistan that is friendly with its neighbours has heightened prospects of building gas pipelines in South Asia, one of the world's largest energy markets in the future.
While Russia and Iran are keen that the Turkmen pipeline should pass through their territory, the US wants the pipeline to reach India via Afghanistan and Pakistan.
A pipeline through Afghanistan to South Asia would ensure huge profits as India is the world's fastest growing energy market and it would serve Washington's geopolitical interests by keeping Russia and Iran, considered US rivals, out of the region.
US assistant secretary in charge of European and Eurasian affairs Elizabeth Jones said during a recent visit to Turkmenistan that Washington would support any commercially viable gas pipeline from Turkmenistan to South Asia.
Assessing the viability of a gas pipeline connecting Turkmenistan with South Asia through Afghanistan, she said the project appeared quite lucrative, given the huge market in India, whose energy requirements are growing at a rate of seven per cent annually.
She, however, made it clear that no US government investment could be expected.
"But this does not mean the US would not encourage private investment in this project," she stressed.
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