India increasingly more active in the Central Asia
Some events suggest that India - so far underestimated - may join the competition for the Turkmen gas. On April 6 Indian Vice President Hamid Ansari visited Ashgabat. As a result of the visit, a joint memorandum concerning energy cooperation was signed. During the talks both parties stressed that there were excellent prospects for Turkmen-Indian cooperation.
Ansari underlined, “Turkmenistan is geo-strategically located and with its vast hydrocarbon resources it has an important role to play in the world energy security”.
India with its vast requirement in energy and dependence on import to meet it is Turkmenistan’s natural partner”
He said that Indian companies like OSGC, OVL, GAIL, and IOC, with their vast expertise, experience and substantial capital were willing to partner with Turkmenistan in upstream and downstream activities.
Indian companies, said Ansari, have also developed expertise in shallow water, offshore and onshore activities.
Another issue discussed was the project of the Trans-Afghanistan gas pipeline (Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan). New Delhi is planning to join this project in the nearest future. Despite the fact that all the mentioned states are interested in construction of this pipeline (also supported by the US), it is still hampered by an unstable situation in Afghanistan.
India has recently activated its policy towards the Central Asia. Numerous Indian government delegations have visited the region, New Delhi is planning to construct an Indian culture centre in one of the Central Asian states, and Indian investors are getting increasingly more interested in the Central Asian market. Indian authorities have also offered to build a road that would connect India and Central Asia (via Pakistan and Afghanistan). There is also unofficial information that India is planning to deploy a military base at the Ajni airport near Dushanbe. As one may gather, New Delhi’s activity doesn’t make India’s traditional rivals - the Pakistani and the Chinese - very happy.
on April 10th, 2008 at 1:11 am
This is just another phase of US expansion in Central Asia. Objective is to balance Russian presence in the area. Instead of being directly involved with Turkmenistan, US has chosen a strategy of dealing through third parties, in this case India. It is not a secret that India - US have common nuclear energy project and some other projects not so well known. Basically, they are close. On the other hand, US is the country that will benefit most from pipeline too. Since pipeline will go through Afghanistan, aka US 51st state, it will be very profitable. In fact, this pipeline is one of the reasons US invaded Afghanistan…
on December 3rd, 2008 at 12:54 pm
Yes, I think as well that US would be to get more involved. But India is doing well to protect its economy from foreign investors and keep the control.