The Hindu : National : Pakistan to get back to India on talks for gas pipeline project

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Nov 25, 2004

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Pakistan to get back to India on talks for gas pipeline project

By Amit Baruah

NEW DELHI, NOV. 24. The Petroleum Minister, Mani Shankar Aiyar, who met the Pakistan Prime Minister, Shaukat Aziz, this morning, said that Islamabad would soon inform him of when a formal meeting could be held with his Pakistani counterpart, Amanullah Khan Jadoon, on the Iran-Pakistan-India gas pipeline.

Talking to presspersons after the meeting, Mr. Aiyar said the question of transit from India to Afghanistan and Central Asia was "very much part" of the wider context of trade and economic exchanges between India and Pakistan. He said the gas pipeline project and the transit question could not be looked at separately.

The issue of Pakistan extending the Most-Favoured Nation status to India was not discussed but it formed part of the wider economic and trade context.

On the two letters he had written to Mr. Jadoon on diesel exports to Pakistan and the gas pipeline, Mr. Aiyar quoted Mr. Aziz as saying that a formal answer would be sent shortly. "I indicated that as far as I was concerned, I was more than willing to meet with my Pakistani counterpart either in India or Pakistan," Mr. Aiyar said.

The India-Pakistan trade relationship could not be restricted or limited. Referring to the gas pipeline project, he said that attention could not be paid to one issue alone at the cost of others in trade and economic ties. Mr. Aziz had told him that they were going ahead with purchase of gas from Iran. They were also talking to Qatar on this issue.

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