The IPI pipeline project should be initiated bilaterally between Pakistan and Iran while India could join the venture whenever it desired so, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said.
ISLAMABAD: The multi-billion-dollar IPI pipeline project should be initiated bilaterally between Pakistan and Iran while India could join the venture whenever it desired so, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said on Friday.
During a meeting with visiting Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki, Gilani referred to the project's "strategic significance" and said Pakistan would work with Iran for the early establishment of a joint financing company for the venture.
Gilani stressed that "Pakistan wants the gas pipeline project should be initiated bilaterally between Pakistan and Iran while India could join afterwards whenever it so desires", said an official statement issued after the meeting.
Outstanding issues related to the Iran-Pakistan-India (IPI) pipeline project "must be resolved quickly" and the gas sales and purchase agreement between Pakistan and Iran should "be signed as early as possible", Gilani said.
Mottaki assured Gilani that Iran is determined to proceed with the IPI project and hoped remaining issues related to the venture would be resolved during his current visit to Pakistan.
Pakistani officials have accused India of delaying participation in the 7.4-billion-dollar project. President Asif Ali Zardari is expected to formally ask China to join the project during his October 14-17 visit to Beijing.
Following a subsequent meeting with Mottaki, Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said Iran was willing to undertake the IPI project bilaterally.
"India is welcome to join this project at a subsequent time of their choice and convenience," he told a joint news conference with Mottaki.
Qureshi said the project "should not be delayed any further" in view of Pakistan's growing energy needs.
A meeting of Iranian and Pakistani technical experts held in Tehran during September 27-28 had resolved four out of five outstanding issues related to the project, he added.
Gilani welcomed President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad's desire expressed during his recent meeting with Zardari in New York to proceed with the IPI project on a fast-track basis.
Gilani was also quoted by TV channels as saying that Pakistan wanted a diplomatic solution to the Iranian nuclear issue as any use of force against Tehran can destabilise the region.
Referring to the existing economic relations between the two countries, the Pakistan Premier regretted that bilateral economic and trade ties had remained "far below their true potential" despite the existence of an institutional framework.
Bilateral trade has not even touched the one-billion dollar mark and overall cooperation in other economic fields is "not commensurate with the warmth in political relations," he said.
Mottaki described the "stability and security of Pakistan as the stability and security of Iran". He agreed with Gilani on the need to expand relations in politics, trade, investment, culture and other fields.
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