By APP,
New Delhi : Indian Petroleum Minister Murli Deora will leave here Tuesday evening for Pakistan to hold talks with his Pakistani counterpart on Iran- Pakistan – India Gas Pipeline Project.
The Hindu quoting a senior official here said “It was only after China expressed interest in the IPI pipeline that India showed urgency for talks. India did not take part in three trilateral talks held during the last nine months without assigning any official reason. Deora had cancelled his visit to Islamabad in February this year at the last minute.”
Media reports suggest that the US pressure on India not to have commercial links with Iran was the reason for boycotting the trilateral meetings on the project.
Murli Deora will also participate in wrap up talks on the Asian Development Bank backed Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India pipeline being held in Islamabad.
The talks will focus on sorting out the issue of transit fee to be levied by Pakistan for transporting gas from Iran to India through Pakistani territory while issue of transportation fee has already been resolved.