US concerns not to sway India-Iran relations
Deshbandhu Singh and CR Jayachandran (HindustanTimes.com)
New Delhi, March 24, 2005
Brushing off US concerns, India has asserted that it would go ahead with the landmark pipeline deal with Iran "without any compromise".
"Our friendship with Iran is civilisational, historical, deep-rooted and multi-faceted and this relationship can't be compromised for any third party concern," Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas Mani Shankar Aiyer told HindustanTimes.com in an exclusive interview.
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, during her visit to India last week told India that Washington is opposed to the $4 billion pipeline deal with Iran, a nation the Bush Administration is trying to force to abandon its nuclear programme.
In its quest to secure adequate resources, India has forged strategic alliances, several of which may render the United States none-too-pleased. India looks to collaborating with historical rival Pakistan for construction of major fuel pipelines. Of greater concern, however, are fledgling partnerships with Iran, Sudan, Venezuela, and Myanmar.
"Our friendship with Iran is civilisational, historical, deep-rooted and multi-faceted"
But, these concerns are not likely to sway India, which is facing rapidly growing energy needs.
"All friendly countries in the world must recognise that even if they have national concerns, we have a very important requirement of energy without which we cannot hope to sustain," Aiyer pointed out.
"Though some of our relations have attracted international attention, I hope our relations with friendly countries are mature enough for reconciliation," he said.
The ambitious project covering a 2700-kilometre pipeline from Iran to India that would allow New Delhi to import the liquefied natural gas(LNG), is expected to be operational in 2009.
A final deal could be completed in June, when Aiyer is expected to visit Iran.
With regard to competition from China in the oil sector, Aiyer said, "While market forces might from time to time dictate competition between India and China, our scope for cooperative endeavour in this direction is much larger.
"My ambition is not to compete with China, but to explore ways and means to partnering with it," he said adding, "there are enormous prospects for both countries to cooperate, our interests are complementary."
"Both India and China should work together in acquiring hydrocarbon properties across the world as we both are the world's largest developing countries and can get the best prices," he opined.
"Therefore, I have set up a task force along with the representative of External Affairs Ministry to prepare a ground for a major visit I hope to make to China this quarter to build upon initial conversation I entered with Beijing," he noted.
India, the world's second-fastest growing economy after China, now consumes about 2.2 million barrels a day
Already ranking sixth in global petroleum demand, India meets 70 per cent of its needs through crude oil imports. By 2010, India is projected to replace South Korea and emerge as the fourth-largest consumer of energy, after the United States, China, and Japan.
India, the world's second-fastest growing economy after China, now consumes about 2.2 million barrels a day, about the same as South Korea, and this is expected to rise to 5.3 million barrels a day by 2025, according to the US Energy Information Administration.
As a result, the Indian government is investing heavily to secure supplies from abroad.
When asked what the Government was doing to stabilise the price mechanism, Aiyer said, "I am hoping that even if crises continue to rule high there will be greater stability in the world market once the seasonal cold spell in the northern hemisphere is brought to an end. And with more stability, we hope we will be able to restore the price mechanism."
India's import bill for crude oil and petroleum products such as LPG went up to Rs 784 billion during April to October 2004. This represents a 58.5 per cent increase over the corresponding figure of Rs 494 billion for the same period of the previous year.
Aiyar said that India's crude oil import bill in March 2005 is expected to rise to $24 billion from $18 billion in the previous year. So far, the Government has allowed only moderate increase in fuel prices, cutting taxes on refined products and abandoning its policy to allow energy firms to raise petrol and diesel prices twice a month to align them with global trends.
"Our prices would have gone through the roof, but we have very carefully managed prices and now seeing that there is some decrease in international prices taking place, I hope that we will be able to introduce a more stable price regime in the country," he said.
© HT Media Ltd. 2005.