By IANS
New Delhi : India is still awaiting Pakistan’s response to its request for official level talks on the $7 billion Iran-Pakistan-India (IPI) gas pipeline, before acceding to any meeting at the ministerial level.
This counter-request was made to Pakistan in response to an invitation to Indian Petroleum Minister Murli Deora to visit Islamabad to hammer out the fractious issues over transit fees and transportation tariffs Feb 7.
“After receiving the letter, we replied that we should first hold official level talks before the ministers meet. We have yet to receive any answer,” an official in the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas said.
He added that India had not suggested any dates to Pakistan, but had left it open-ended.
India had also turned down an invitation from Iran on a meeting of the three ministers at Tehran Tuesday and Wednesday – not surprising, as India has been steadfast in its refusal to take part in trilateral meets unless it completes bilateral negotiations with Pakistan.
It has in fact kept out of the last three trilateral meetings for the 1,035 km long pipeline on the same argument, which has certainly irked Left allies of the ruling coalition government, who have accused the Congress of succumbing to US pressure.
Indian officials are keen that any further negotiations on the pipeline should be mainly with the next government thrown up by the forthcoming Feb 18 general elections in Pakistan.
According to officials, India had asked that transit fee should be pegged at five percent of the price of delivered gas, while Pakistan argues for double that figure. Similarly, the transportation tariff demanded by Pakistan is $1.57 per million British thermal unit of gas supply, while India is looking for a much lower figure of about $0.69 to $0.70.
After India turned down the two ministerial level meets in Islamabad and Tehran this month, there has been rumbling from Tehran and Islamabad that Indian participation was not a fait accompli.
Pakistani media reported that China would be interested in stepping into the project, if India did not show more active interest. Indian officials, however, dismissed the reports as merely pressure tactics.
Iran and Pakistan have already concluded talks on a bilateral gas purchase agreement, but have yet to ink the deal.
Meanwhile, officials were also pleasantly surprised by the offer of the visiting Turkish Foreign Minister Ali Babacan last week to supply gas from Turkey’s Cehan, through Israel to its Red Sea port and then onto India.
“We have not got an official offer on this project, but it certainly sounds intriguing,” said a petroleum ministry official.
The other pipeline project through Turkmenistan, Afghanistan and Pakistan to India has had several false starts, with the last multilateral meeting in Islamabad postponed by the continuing bout of violence and political instability in that country.