Progress on the TAPI pipeline has been repeatedly delayed because of security issues in conflict-ravaged Afghanistan. File
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Afghanistan said Wednesday (September 11, 2024) work would begin on a $10 billion gas pipeline traversing South Asia as officials joined dignitaries in neighbouring Turkmenistan to celebrate its completion on that side of the border.

Progress on the TAPI pipeline — running through Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and India — has been repeatedly delayed because of security issues in conflict-ravaged Afghanistan.

“From today the operations will start on Afghanistan’s soil,” Taliban government spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said at the ceremony in comments broadcast by Afghan State television.

Also Read: TAPI gas pipeline project breaks ground at Turkmenistan’s border with Afghanistan

At the border ceremony in Islim Cheshma in Turkmenistan, officials on both sides, including Afghan Prime Minister Hassan Akhund, hailed the project.

“This project will benefit not only the economies of the countries participating but also the countries of the whole region,” Turkmen President Serdar Berdimuhamedow said in a video broadcast live at the ceremony.

In the Afghan border province of Herat, a public holiday was declared to mark the occasion, with posters celebrating the project plastered around the capital of the same name.

The pipeline will see around 33 billion cubic metres of natural gas each year extracted from the Galkynysh gas field in southeast Turkmenistan.

It will be pumped through a 1,800km (1,120-mile) pipeline traversing Afghanistan, including Herat and Kandahar in the south, before crossing into restive Balochistan province in Pakistan and ending in Fazilka in Punjab.

Pakistan and India will each purchase 42% of the gas deliveries, and Afghanistan 16%, while Kabul will also benefit from lucrative transit fees of around $500 million per year, according to Afghan media.

Work on the Turkmen side began in 2015 and was initially scheduled to start in Afghanistan in 2018, but has been repeatedly delayed.

India’s commitment to the pipeline has also previously been questioned over its relationship with Pakistan and its already easy access to liquefied natural gas markets.

Jobs and cheap gas

The ceremony was an opportunity to simultaneously launch various bilateral projects, including a fibre-optic line to Herat, an electricity line, and the inauguration of a railway bridge.

In a country plagued by unemployment, TAPI “will provide jobs for 12,000 people in Afghanistan,” the government spokesman Mujahid told AFP.

Neither Afghan nor Turkmen officials have provided details on the financing or the expected date for TAPI to come online.

However, Swapnil Babele, an analyst with the research group Rystad Energy, expects further delays “as a lot of work remains to be done and the question of future financing is unclear”.

“We expect it to be operational only in the next decade,” he added.

For the three recipient countries, the pipeline will have the advantage of “delivering gas cheaper than liquefied natural gas and ensuring consistent supply”.

It is the most significant development project for Taliban authorities since they seized power in 2021, ending their two decade-long insurgency against the foreign-backed government.

The pipeline gives the government, which is not officially recognised by any nation, a strategic role in regional cooperation between Central Asia and South Asia, which is facing huge energy deficits.

Afghanistan, although still under economic and financial sanctions from the West, is currently trying to relaunch ambitious projects, particularly in energy, mines and infrastructure.

At the end of July, Afghanistan and China officially relaunched a major copper-extraction project in the world’s second-largest known deposit, near Kabul, which had been bogged down since 2008.

File picture of former Indian Navy officer Kulbhushan Jadhav
| Photo Credit: PTI

The High Commission of India (HCI) in Islamabad has declined to provide any information on the status of Kulbhushan Jadhav, an alleged spy imprisoned in Pakistan.

Also Read: Explained | Will Pakistan law on Kulbhushan Jadhav help India’s position?

This decision was made in response to a petition filed by Arkatla Bunganna, who sought information on the “status of the incarceration of Kulbhushan Jadhav, facing charges of espionage in a Pakistani jail since 2018.”

Mr. Bunganna requested the details under the Right to Information Act, 2005, citing his Below Poverty Line (BPL) status to seek an exemption from the fee. However, there was no mention of any relationship between the petitioner and Mr. Jadhav.

Not satisfied with the responses from the Chief Public Information Officer (CPIO) and the First Appellate Authority (FAA) of the HCI, Mr. Bunganna approached the Central Information Commission (CIC) for relief.

In an order issued last year, a copy of which was accessed by The Hindu, the CIC upheld the decision of the CPIO and FAA, who denied the information citing Section 8(1)(a) of the Act.

This section exempts the disclosure of information that could “prejudicially affect the sovereignty and integrity of India, the security, strategic, scientific, or economic interests of the State, relations with foreign states, or lead to incitement of an offence.”

Sensitive matter

During the appeal hearing, an attaché from the HCI in Pakistan stated that both the CPIO and FAA had responded promptly to Mr. Bunganna’s request. The information sought pertained to a sensitive matter with significant security and strategic implications, warranting its exemption under the relevant provisions of the Act.

Also Read: Kulbhushan Jadhav case: A timeline

In his ruling, the then Chief Information Commissioner Y. K. Sinha dismissed the appeal, noting that the public authorities had correctly applied the relevant legal provisions to deny the information.

Mr. Jadhav was reportedly arrested on March 3, 2016, in the Chaman area of Balochistan, near the Pakistan-Afghanistan border. Pakistani authorities claimed he was a serving Indian defence officer working for India’s external intelligence agency, the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW).

However, the Government of India denied these allegations, asserting that Mr. Jadhav had taken early retirement from the Indian Navy and was running a business in the Iranian port city of Chabahar.

On April 10, 2017, a Pakistani military court sentenced Mr. Jadhav to death for “involvement in espionage and sabotage activities against Pakistan.” India condemned the verdict as “premeditated murder.”

The International Court of Justice later intervened, staying the execution and directing Pakistan to review the trial and conviction process, and to grant consular access to India.

Washington:

 The United States has said it supports direct discussions between India and Pakistan but the pace, scope and character of talks should be determined by the two neighbouring countries.

Responding to a question at his daily news conference on Thursday, State Department Spokesperson Matthew Miller said the US values its important relationships with both India and Pakistan.

“As we have said, we support direct discussions between India and Pakistan, but the pace, scope and character should be determined by those two countries, not by us,” he said.

Responding to another question, Miller said the US and Pakistan have a shared interest in combating threats to regional security.

“We partner with Pakistan on security through our high-level counterterrorism dialogue, including several counterterrorism capacity building programmes, and we support a series of US-Pakistan military-to-military engagements,” he said.

“We are in regular communication with Pakistani leaders as a part of our partnership on CT issues, and we will continue to discuss regional security in detail, including through our annual counterterrorism dialogue and other bilateral consultations,” he added.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)