ISLAMABAD - Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif assured Iranian President Hassan Rouhani during their meeting on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly session Tuesday that Pakistan has every intention of going ahead with the Iran-Pakistan (IP) gas pipeline project.
Sources privy to the meeting told The Nation that it “was marked by positivity and warmth on both sides”. The Tuesday meeting between Prime Minister Sharif and President Rouhani held special significance being the first interaction between the two leaders since they took their respective offices earlier this year.
Described by sources in New York as “good”, the meeting was somewhat downplayed by the Foreign Office that chose to issue a one-paragraph press release disclosing little on Wednesday.
There was no mention of the gas project talk in the statement that in its one-liner on energy cooperation merely said: “The prime minister stated that cooperation in the energy sector will serve the interest of both countries.”
During the 15-minute warm exchange, Iran’s more moderate new president reportedly told the prime minister that he “thinks of Pakistan as his home”, when the latter invited him to visit Pakistan. President Rouhani noted the IP pipeline project should be completed on time, underscoring its importance for both the countries. Agreeing with him that the project was mutually beneficial, Premier Nawaz said his government was pursuing it diligently, sources said.
Under the agreement signed with Iran by the PPP government in 2009, the stipulated time for the project’s completion is December 2014 – by when Pakistan is to start importing gas. Pakistan would have to bear a heavy penalty of $3 million for every day’s delay in completion of the project. Iran can also claim billions of dollars in compensation for any breach of contract.
The PML-N government has repeatedly dispelled the impression that it might abandon the $1.5 billion project due to pressure from the US, Saudi Arabia and some other oil-rich states.
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif clearly conveyed to the US secretary of state John Kerry when he visited Pakistan in August that his government will go ahead with the project.
He told Kerry that the project was imperative for Pakistan’s economic development given the acute energy shortage in the country. A detailed non-paper stating Pakistan’s position on the matter was also handed to the secretary of state for the Obama Administration.
The IP pipeline project will be one of the key agenda items of bilateral talks between Pakistan and US when Sharif and Obama hold summit-level meeting in Washington in the coming weeks. Given the seeming thaw in Iran-US relations with President Obama advocating diplomacy with Tehran over its nuclear programme, there could be some softening of Washington’s stance on the gas pipeline issue.
As for the Sharif-Rouhani meeting, the FO statement on it also read: “The two leaders reviewed status of bilateral cooperation and exchanged views on regional and international issues particularly the challenges being faced by the Islamic Ummah... The two countries agreed that Afghanistan’s neighbours need to work closely with the Afghan government and support an Afghan-owned and Afghan-led political process.”