BAKU, Azerbaijan, February 3
By Jeila Aliyeva - Trend:
Turkmenistan's Ambassador to Pakistan Atadjan Movlamov suggested that Pakistan, Afghanistan and Turkmenistan consider signing a transit trade agreement, Trend reports with reference to the Business Turkmenistan information portal.
This was stated in the ambassador's speech to the business community at the Islamabad Chamber of Commerce & Industry (ICCI) (Pakistan) about the potential areas of bilateral cooperation between Turkmenistan and Pakistan.
He added that Afghanistan is the shortest trade route for Turkmenistan to Pakistan, and the establishment of peace in Afghanistan will allow both countries to develop bilateral trade, using their potential.
Movlamov noted that Turkmenistan expects the visit of Pakistani business circles after the settlement of the epidemiological situation in the world caused by the pandemic, to explore new areas of bilateral cooperation between the two countries.
He also expressed Turkmenistan's desire to strengthen trade ties with Pakistan.
The ambassador also noted that Turkmenistan considers the Pakistani ports of Gwadar and Karachi as strategically important for the development of trade with other countries.
Turkmenistan has the capacity to supply 3,000 MW of electricity to Pakistan. Turkmenistan can also supply liquefied petroleum gas to Pakistan, he said.
According to him, electricity will cost Pakistan almost half of the current cost of electricity purchased in the country and contributes to the achievement of higher industrial growth rates.
Turkmenistan and Pakistan cooperate in a number of areas, in particular in the oil and gas sector. One of the main indicators of cooperation between the countries in the oil and gas sector is the construction of the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) gas pipeline.
The Turkmenistan–Afghanistan–Pakistan–India Pipeline (TAPI), also known as Trans-Afghanistan Pipeline, is a natural gas pipeline being developed by the Galkynysh – TAPI Pipeline Company Limited with the participation of the Asian Development Bank.
The pipeline will transport natural gas from the Galkynysh Gas Field in Turkmenistan through Afghanistan into Pakistan and then to India. Construction on the project started in Turkmenistan on December 13, 2015.
The length of the Turkmen section of the TAPI pipeline, the construction of which was launched in December 2015, will be 205 kilometers (the main operations are carried out on the 120th kilometer). The pipeline will pass through the Afghan cities of Herat and Kandahar (816 kilometers), through the cities of Quetta and Multan across Pakistani territory (819 kilometers), and reach the city of Fazilka in India.
The pipeline’s design capacity is planned to be 33 billion cubic meters of gas per year, and the project’s cost - about $8 billion.
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