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| June 23, 2005 | Thursday | Jumadi-ul-Awwal 15, 1426 |
Aziz: national interest to guide decision on pipeline
ISLAMABAD, June 22: Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz has said that the national interest will be kept supreme in taking a decision about the Iran-Pakistan-India gas pipeline project.
“We have not decided about the gas pipeline project coming from Iran and we will decide about it in line with our national interests,” the prime minister said during a meeting with a visiting delegation of the Indian Newspapers Society here on Wednesday.
Pakistan, he said, had offered an energy corridor to India with a view to improving trade and economic relations with it. He said Pakistan would like Indians’ participation in all three projects envisaging gas supply from Iran, Turkmenistan and Qatar.
“I have always maintained that Pakistan would take into account its own national interests about this gas pipeline project,” the prime minister replied when his attention was drawn to American reservations about the project involving Iran.
APP adds: “If India joins us the economics would be better, but if they don’t even then we will go ahead,” he said, adding that Pakistan was situated next to the energy sources available at Iran and it was an opportunity for both the countries to benefit from this prospect.
He pointed out that cooperation on the gas pipeline project would make the Pakistan-India relations more sustainable.
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