ISLAMABAD (AFP) — Pakistan and Iran on Friday said they were willing to undertake bilaterally a stalled multi-billion-dollar gas pipeline even if India does not join the project.
The pipeline, to carry gas from Iran to Pakistan and India, was first mooted in 1994 but has been delayed by repeated disputes over prices and transit fees.
The foreign ministers of Pakistan and Iran met in Islamabad and announced that the 7.5 billion dollar pipeline could start without India's involvement.
"Iran is willing to undertake the project bilaterally," Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi told reporters after talks with Manouchehr Mottaki.
Mottaki endorsed the plan, saying that "India may join the project whenever it is ready for this."
Talks on the project to supply gas to India and to Pakistan through the 2,600-kilometre (1,600-mile) pipeline have been hobbled by tensions between the two rival nuclear powers.
India, which imports more than 70 percent of its energy needs, has been seeking new supplies of oil and gas while ramping up domestic production to sustain its booming economy.
New Delhi has also been under pressure from the United States not to do business with Iran, viewed in Washington as a state sponsor of terrorism that is bent on acquiring nuclear weapons.
Qureshi previously guaranteed Pakistan would "provide fool-proof security" for the pipeline, which is expected to pass through Pakistan's volatile Baluchistan region.
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