The Hindu gets it, India, Pakistan and Iran get it, unfortunately the US doesn't.
For India, the Iran pipeline is — to employ North American argot — a no-brainer. Specifically, it offers a number of advantages. First, the import of natural gas from Iran is a vital element in India's quest for energy security. Secondly, the pipeline project opens up a new and potentially exciting chapter in the bilateral relationship between Islamabad and New Delhi. Each side gets an economic stake in the other and this can only engender stability and predictability in the political equation. Thirdly, the Iran-Pakistan-India pipeline grid can be extended into Turkmenistan to allow Central Asian and Caspian gas to flow in. Finally, the grid could also be extended eastward from India to northern Myanmar and China's Yunnan province, thereby tying India, China, Pakistan, Iran, and Central Asia into a common energy network that would lower costs of transportation all round. India would be most unwise to give up all this and more for the chimera of an "energy dialogue" with a country that continues to deny it technology, equipment, and fuel for its civilian nuclear industry.
I am doubtful that the current US administration can be relied upon to understand the concept of interdependence. More later.
UPDATE (05/06): Iran-Pakistan-India pipeline by 2010
Comments