In particular, the project is expected to supply more than 1.3 billion ft³ per day of gas to Pakistan and India and 0.5 billion ft³ to Afghanistan.
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The leaders emphasized the need for enhanced connectivity for peace and stability in the region.
Earlier, President of Turkmenistan Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov welcomed the dignitaries including heads of states and foreign ministers from the region, South Asia and Gulf region.
“Your personal commitment to the success of our common venture augurs well for the entire region and for the people of all our countries”, he said while speaking at the ground-breaking ceremony of the TAPI gas pipeline project in Mary.
Talking to media persons on board the aircraft during his return journey after ground-breaking ceremony of the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) gas pipeline, Nawaz said the project had created a “win-win situation” for the economies of its component countries. India would pay $200-250 million in transit fee to Pakistan while Pakistan would pay the same amount in transit fee to Afghanistan. “Thus, this project will help in mitigating energy deficit in Pakistan”, the statement said.
Talking about Pakistan-India relations, Prime Minister of Pakistan said that when Indian PM expressed willingness to talk, Pakistan said it was ready for the talks.
The pipeline, which will pump gas from the Galkynysh deposits, will run for 1,814 kilometers (1,125 miles), of which just 214 km (133 mi.) will run through Turkmen territory, which has the world’s fifth largest known reserves of the hydrocarbon.
Though Turkmenistan, Afghanistan and PakistanAinitially signed an agreement to implement the ambitious project after a meeting in Islamabad in 2002, India joined the trio in 2006 through the Asia Development Bank, which did a feasibility study on the gas pipeline, and became a permanent member during their 10th steering committee meeting in 2008.
The president went on to add that Turkmenistan is rich in energy resources, including natural gas, and the country tries to increase its export.
“Secondly, it shows that Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan and India will be renewing ties that bound us together for several millennia but due to the advent of Soveit Union were ruptured”, he added. Afghanistan’s former intelligence chief Amrullah Saleh, who had said in an interview in May that Pakistan wants two different set of concessions from Ghani, one for state of Pakistan and one for the Taliban, took to Twitter and highlighted the misfit alignment of Pakistan’s influence over the Taliban.
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Upon his arrival in Turkmenistan, Nawaz held a meeting with President Berdymukhamedov, the Afghan president and the Indian vice president in the city of Mary.
