Pak assures security to Iran-Pak-India pipeline

Pakistan on Wednesday welcomed India's readiness to set up the US$3 billion Iran-Pakistan-India Gas pipeline and said it would 'be glad' to guarantee security to  the project, a condition put forward by External Affairs Minister Natwar Singh.

This was stated by Pakistan Foreign Minister Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri in a meeting with Indian Ambassador Shivsankar Menon in Islamabad.

Kasuri welcomed the statement of Singh that India would agree to the setting up of the pipeline project if Pakistan were to give international guarantees for its security, the foreign ministry said in a statement.

He observed that the gas pipeline would not only benefit India, which is energy deficient but also Pakistan, Iran and the entire region.

The project, he felt, would have a positive impact on the efforts of the two governments to promote economic development in their respective countries, the statement said.

Kasuri said President Pervez Musharraf and Prime Minister Zafarullah Khan Jamali were committed to the peace process and that he was happy to note the positive statements of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress chief Sonia Gandhi.

Menon has told Kasuri that the new govenment in India remained committed to a sustained dialogue process with Pakistan and to carry it forward, the statement said.

He assured the foreign minister that the support of the new government to this peace process remained undiminished, it said.

Kasuri told the Indian High Commissioner that he was looking forward to meeting Singh and receiving him here during a meeting of the SAARC Council of Ministers on 20th and 21st July.

Meanwhile, Pakistan Foreign Office spokesman Masood Khan said Singh and Kasuri would have their first face to face dialogue when the two meet on the sidelines of the Asian Cooperation Dialogue (ACD) forum in the Chinese city of Quingdao to be held on June 21 and 22.

Kasuri would be taking part in the ACD meeting and there was every chance of the two having a one-to-one meeting on its sidelines, which would be their first after Singh took over as External Affairs Minister.

Singh and Kasuri has spoken to each other thrice.

During their meeting, Kasuri told Menon that he welcomed the telephone calls from Singh, during which he had spoken very warmly and optimistically about the future of Indo-Pakistan relations.