Pakistan: the energy corridor, comes (back) into focus?
Friday, May 25, 2012 at 12:03AM 
WSJ story on how India and Pakistan came to recent - and reviving - agreement on pipeline to connect India to Afghanistan and Turkmenistan beyond (so-called TAPI pipeline for the countries linked). This is in addition to the proposed pipeline linking Pakistan to Iran (terminating in Karachi).
The trans-Afghan pipeline project is much-delayed, despite US backing, but it gets a new breath of life with this agreement, which, of course, now unfolds against the backdrop of NATO's accelerating departure. Naturally, the US wants the Iranian pipeline to fail, but I think it's positive if both succeed. Both India and Pakista are starved for natural gas.
In both instances, don't expect Westerners to invest, due to security concerns, but such things don't necessarily stop Chinese and Indian money.
And that is how it should be - and should have been all along.
Reader Comments (1)
That pipeline goes through a lot of folks that would seem to want a cut of the action. Turmenistan will want theirs as will the Afghans, Pashtuns and Pakistani's. Perhaps the coming fracking of China will open up another avenue for India to import gas and keep everyone else from holding this pipeline hostage.