India’s External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna will be visiting Tehran on Saturday to attend the G15 summit. During his stay, Krishna is expected to re-start negotiations with Iran over the proposed $7.5 billion Iran-Pakistan-India (IPI) gas pipeline. The proposed pipeline would be 2,200-km (1,615-mile) long, linking Iran’s South Pars gas fields to Pakistan and India.
Iran has already secured the final agreement with Pakistan to launch the Iran-Pakistan segment of IPI pipeline. The two countries have also invited India to join the project. Negotiations with India broke down last year apparently after differences over proposed transit fees by Pakistan. But observers believed at the time that India was not ready politically to commit itself to a major agreement in energy sector with Iran.
Improving relations with India should be an Iranian priority as Pakistan is an imploding failed state and Wahabbi terror central. India's policy has been confused since Manmohan Singh came to power, it has been trying to improve economic relations with Iran (due to its huge and growing energy needs) and its propensity to bow to US pressure. However, India and Iran share a variety of common interests (Afghanistan, regional stability and economic development). I believe the only successful conclusion to this long delayed IPI project will have to by-pass unstable Pakistan, particularly Pak held Baluchistan which is in throes of its fourth major insurgency. India, like Iran is a rising power and destined to play a major role in the region as well as an important global economic player with over 1.2 billion people and a huge market. It is only rational for India and Iran to cooperate and increase their friendly ties based on historical cultural links.
ReplyDeleteIran's foreign economic policy under President Mahmud Ahmadinejad has already brought tangible dividends in terms of greater investment by G-15 countries. Investments by Indian companies OVL, Oil India and IOC in the development of the Farsi oil and gas blocks as well as the South Pars Gas field in Iran are cases in point.
ReplyDeleteTata Steel has invested in steel plants, while Indian public-sector companies like Rites and Ircon helped develop the Chahbahar container terminal project in southwest Iran. Among other countries, Venezuela has also invested some $760 million in Iran's South Part oil fields and $700 million in a joint petrochemical project in Assaluyeh.
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/LE14Ak02.html
The Indians will sell their souls for a grain, remember how they stumbled against Iran (all of a sudden) when Bush went there ..
ReplyDeleteYou are right. Historically Indians have been very unprincipled and opportunists. No wonder they have been colonized by just about every major power throughout their history. Nadir Shah with only 50,000 strong Persian Army captured all of Northern India in barely one week.
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