PREVENTIVE MEASURES REGARDING
GAS-PIPE LINE ISSUE AMONG
INDIA, PAKISTAN & IRAN
QURATUL AIN*
INTRODUCTION
Long-standing conflicts between Pakistan and India would make the practicality
of a pipeline to the Indian subcontinent questionable. Although it seemed
for sometime that these two countries will be able to maintain a peaceful
relationship by signing this deal and forming a consortium, at least with
regard to a joint pipeline. Yet recent nuclear missile tests by both Pakistan
and India have rekindled concerns about the security and viability of
such an investment.
The ongoing debate over the legal status of Kashmir has been a troublesome
issue and the primary source of tension between the two countries. Resolving
this long-standing conflict obviously can not occur immediately, but a
mutually beneficial project of large scale, such as a pipeline from Turkmenistan
to the subcontinent, might prove helpful to a cordial relationship between
and India and Pakistan. In fact, Ambassadors Naresh Chandra and Ambassador
Riaz H. Khokhar, the respective Indian and Pakistani Ambassadors to the
United States, compartmentalized a natural gas pipeline into the subcontinent
as an effective "confidence building measure."
BASIC CONCEPT
The exportation of natural gas from Iran to India through Pakistan is
a consideration which may change the face of regional politics in South
Asia. It is a study in how economic cooperation possesses the power to
stimulate as well as transform social and political discourse between
countries. The Indian government hypothesizes whether Pakistan could guarantee
security for the flow of natural gas in the pipeline. Furthermore, Pakistan's
collaboration with Iran may foster conflict resolution as well. Adeli,
the minister of Iran brought with him a pipeline deal India will find
hard to reject. First 2.5 million tons of LNG per annum at half the international
prices and payable after delivery.
Natural gas trade between India, Iran, and Pakistan challenges the geopolitical,
historical, and strategic realities of the three countries and the general
regions of the Middle East and Asia. In this way, the relationship between
the pipeline venture and globalization is multidisciplinary. It is not
characterized solely by economic factors, even though the current economic
realities in Iran, India, and Pakistan do indicate the future necessity
of economic collaboration. The realities of this case study are representative
of the perception that multidisciplinary globalization is changing the
face of regional politics and altering the social and political landscape
of regions.
INTEREST AND POINT OF VIEW OF INDIA, PAKISTAN AND IRAN
Adeli, the minister of Iran brought with him a pipeline deal India will
find hard to reject. First 2.5 million tons of LNG per annum at half the
international prices and payable after delivery. India’s fears that
extremists in Pakistan could interfere with the line at will. Tehran put
forward a suggestion that pipeline be owned and operated by an international
association of bankers and oil companies, which would buy the oil from
Iran and sell it to India.
It also suggested that the taps on the pipeline based only in Iran and
India, so that Pakistan will not be able to stop the supply without actually
destroying a section, thereby hurting its own supplies.
Pakistan is also expected to earn economic benefits up to US $ 600-800
million annually in transit fees alone as a result of this deal. On the
other hand this could turn out to be the economic foundation which not
only safeguards the regional stability but in fact nudges the future “clash
of civilizations”.
Assuring New Delhi and Tehran about providing all security measures for
the project, Pakistan's Petroleum and Natural Resources Minister Choudhary
Noraiz Shakoor told Iran's envoy to Pakistan, Muhammad Ebrahim Taherian,
that the pipeline would not only be beneficial for the socio-economic
uplift for the member states, but also prove to be a peace line in the
region.
Iran has got interest in this deal because it is quite clear that India
and Iran both can provide each other’s needs because Iran has vast
oil and gas fields and India on the other hand is forever energy hungry.
Given the geographical nearness of India to Iran, India is a natural market
for the Iranian gas and oil sector.
Khatami has tried to put his strategy in a twisted way by sending a message
to his Pakistani counterpart Musharraf extending to him brotherly and
Pakistani nation his warmest, most sincere greetings and expressing hope
that the two countries’ relations, would improve more than ever
before. Khatami's principal speech focused on a plea for religious tolerance,
warning that the shared values of faith and religion had been eroded worldwide
by bigotry as well as by anti-religious sentiment. This statement indirectly
also points towards the Indo-Pak relations and provoke the peace sentiments
of Pakistan.
CONCLUSION
India and Pakistan should realize that the laying of this pipeline would
increase the security of the region. In other words, if a broader definition
is used, the security of a nation depends not only on military strength,
but also on economic development and energy availability. Since this pipeline
would be economically beneficial to the region, and would supply additional
energy power to India and possibly Pakistan, both countries would benefit
by increased security.
Given that this investment would be economically advantageous to both
Pakistan and India, the question remains as to whether or not it is practical.
After all, with such a history of conflict between them, the two countries
may very well be unable to cooperate on the implementation and regulation
of the pipeline.
* Student, B. A (Hons) IIIrd Year, Department of International Relations,
University of Karachi
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