NEW DELHI, May 2: India said on Tuesday it was seriously pursuing a multi-billion dollar gas pipeline with Iran and Pakistan, ruling out that United States pressure against the project would bend New Delhi’s resolve.
“I don’t think America is pressurising us on the issue. I think America cannot pressurise us (to walk out of the project),” Indian Petroleum Minister Murli Deora told reporters ahead of his talks with Iranian Deputy Oil Minister Hadi Nejad Hosseinian.
“We are very serious on this issue and it is not me but the prime minister who made the statement that the pipeline is for peace and progress of the region,” he said.
An official statement said after the talks that Iran and India have held discussions on the Iran-Pakistan-India (IPI) Pipeline Project and that they are progressing well and all three countries are seriously pursuing the project together. Serious differences, however, appear to have surfaced between the two sides over Iran’s proposed supply of LNG to India.
The statement quoted Mr Hosseinian as saying after his meeting with Mr Deora that while there is a proposal of laying one pipeline from Iran to supply gas to both Pakistan and India, a parallel pipeline would be considered later if the combined gas requirement of the two countries is more than the capacity of a single pipeline.
