Turkmenistan, Ashgabat, April 26 / Trend H. Hasanov /
Great progress was achieved after the Ashgabat summit on the construction project of the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) in December 2010, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's message said during his address, Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov said.
The message is timed to coincide with the 20th anniversary of establishing the diplomatic relations between the countries.
"Our countries have developed close and multifaceted relations in the interests of the Turkmen and Indian people for the past 20 years," the message said. "Recalling your state visit to India in May 2010, I enthusiastically want to mention that it gave an important impetus to the development of bilateral relations."
The Indian Prime Minister expressed his readiness to further expand bilateral ties in all areas. The prospect of developing interstate cooperation was stressed in trade, investment and the economy to more fully realise the potential of the partnership. Information and communication technologies are an important area where the countries could intensify cooperation.
"A good start would be the joint centre of information technology opened in Ashgabat last year," Singh said.
The Ashgabat interstate agreement of member stated that the practical implementation of the TAPI project signed in late 2010 is the base document to promote TAPI project. The design capacity of the pipeline is up to 33 billion cubic meters of gas per year.
Buyers are the gas companies of Pakistan and India. The project is promoted by the Asian Development Bank. The resource base in addition to the Dovletabad field is the largest field in Turkmenistan, namely the Southern Yoloten - Osman (Galkynysh). The length of the pipeline may reach 1,735 kilometres.
At present the principle of forming an international consortium is being discussed. The issue of financing the project is also being solved. Russia began to show interest in this project at a high level. Its implementation is supported by the U.S, which opposed a similar project from Iran to Pakistan.
Earlier, Pakistani media reported that the final documents on TAPI are planned to be discussed in Ashgabat on May 24, 2012.
According to the information, it is anticipated that ADB is ready to partially invest in the project estimated at $10 billion.