Regional cooperation
The other day I came across an interesting article on international gas pipeline. I am talking about Iran-Pakistan-India (IPI) 2775 kilometre gas line which was mooted back in 1993 involving an expected cost of $3.3 billion which has now jumped to the haggard figure of $7.6 billion. This was stalled due to the laxity of India since the US Nuclear deal was under consideration of Indian Parliament. As we see everywhere in the world, America was pulling the strings here too. American hostility towards Iran stood in the way of this project. As a result of American pressure India sidelined this issue and did not attend the three meetings between Iranian and Pakistani officials during the last nine months. It may be mentioned here that it was also due to American pressure that India voted against Iran at the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency). However, the pressure of the Indian opposition outweighed the American pressure. There was another factor working simultaneously, I mean, Pakistan's invitation to China to join the IPI project. All these together hastened Indian oil Minister's visit to Islamabad to clinch this deal as both Pakistan and India announced in a press conference in Islamabad on April 25 that a final agreement would be signed within weeks if not days. In this perspective the forthcoming visit of Iranian President to Islamabad and New Delhi will be of great significance. There was another development in the shape of Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India 1680 kilometre gas pipeline project with the backing of America and its henchman Asian Development Bank just to put IPI in limbo. Unfortunately for Bush this TAPI project fizzled out first because doubts persisted about Turkmenistan's actual gas reserve and secondly because whether those gas reserves are under Turkmenistan's control or were pledged to Russia. On the other hand, Iran assured abundant gas supply from Iran's South Pars gas fields. The IPI gas line is expected to be complete by 2012 and will carry 2.4 billion cubic feet of gas per day to be equally shared by India and Pakistan. The fees will be worked out when Pakistan completes its portion of the pipeline. It is expected that Pakistan will earn about $ 148 million per year as transit fee at the rate of 40 cent per million British thermal unit of gas.
The above facts show that Pakistan and India have shaken off other petty squabbles and rose to the occasion when the interest of their countries came. If the arch rivals like Pakistan and India, who fought three was, could join hands to uphold the overall interest of their respective countries, why can't we in Bangladesh do the same? Cant's we give transit passage to India for their states of Tripura and Assam? Can't we allow India to use Mongla port with necessary infrastructure through which, I am sure, we can earn a considerable amount of foreign currency as transit fees etc.
There was another similar project i.e. Myanmar-Bangladesh-India gas pipeline. Here too due to our intransigence we 'missed the bus'.
Frankly speaking, I mentioned the above projects as a layman without knowing the nitty-gritty. I leave the details to be thrashed out by Expert Committees but surely not by our politicians. Enough is enough. We have been observing them for the last 37 years.
The circle is complete: we can't take more.
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