India committed to Iran-Pak-India gas pipeline

WASHINGTON: India is committed to the Iran-Pakistan-India gas pipeline said Finance Minister P Chidambaram, who is in Washington the annual meetings of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.

The issue of Iran-Pakistan-India gas pipeline was discussed when Chidambaram met the Iranian Finance and Economic Affairs Minister Davood Danesh Jafari.

"He asked me about our commitment to the pipeline. I said we remain committed to the pipeline. We would have to sort out one or two issues relating to the transit charges. He urged us to resolve these as quickly as possible" Chidambaram said.

"It is completely doable. We should do it. Iran has the gas and we need the gas. We have a problem on the transit charges and that is a problem India and Pakistan would have to resolve. I don't know of any other problems. It is a commercial negotiation, a commercial matter and should be dealt with as a commercial matter," the finance minister said.

Chidambaram also had a number of bilaterals with finance ministries or deputies from countries including Russia, Spain, Nepal and Iran.

He also had discussions with the Secretary of State of the UK and the Minister of Economic Cooperation of Germany.