Baku, Azerbaijan, March 27
By Fatih Karimov - Trend:
Tehran and Islamabad agreed to increase Iran's electricity export to Pakistan by 40 percent, the Iranian government's official website reported.
The agreement was achieved during the meeting of Iranian Energy Minister Hamid Chitchian and his Pakistani counterpart Khawaja Muhammad Asif in Islamabad on March 26.
The increase will be realized based on an amendment added to former agreement between the two countries which was signed in 2000.
The two ministers also held primary negotiations to increase the capacity of Iran's electricity exports to Pakistan to 3000 megawatts (MW).
It was agreed that the issue to be concluded during the visit of the Pakistani water and power minister to Tehran which is scheduled for May.
Earlier the Deputy Energy Minister of Iran Houshang Falahatian announced that exporting 3000 MW of power to Pakistan is possible. Without specifying the details, he also said that the delayed debt of Iran's neighbor power clients is about $1.5 billion.
Pakistan has about four percent share in Iran's 10-billion kWh electricity energy export, according to the annual report of Iran's Energy Ministry.
Coming to Pakistan's debts to Iran, The Express Tribune reported on March 10 that Pakistan is already importing 73MW to meet the requirement of Gwadar but payments could not be made since 2011. "Now that sanctions have been removed from Iran, officials believe banking channels will be opened, paving the way for payment of outstanding bills," the report said.