ISLAMABAD: The groundbreaking ceremony of Tapi gas pipeline project will be held in December this year, and the president of Turkmenistan has officially invited Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to attend the event.

Baymurat Hojamuhamedov, Turkmenistan’s Deputy Prime Minister for Oil and Gas and Special Envoy of Turkmenistan’s president, called on Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Monday and communicated the invitation of the president.

Mr Sharif thanked the Turkmen president for the invitation and said Pakistan strongly supports the project and its early completion.

He said the Tapi (Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India) project would meet the energy requirements of the region and benefit all countries of the region.

The prime minister discussed the regional connectivity initiative with the Turkmen deputy premier and said that rail and road links between Gwadar and Central Asia would increase the economic activity in the region. Pakistan, he said, would facilitate Turkmenistan and the Central Asian countries to develop rail and road links up to Gwadar.

Chairman of State Agency for Management and Use for Hydrocarbon Resources Yagshygeldy Kakaev, Ambassador of Turkmenistan Aladjan Movlamov, Minister for Petroleum and Natural Resources Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, Adviser to Prime Minister on National Security Sartaj Aziz, and Minister of State for Petroleum, Jam Kamal also attended the meeting.

Published in Dawn, August 4th, 2015

On a mobile phone? Get the Dawn Mobile App: Apple Store | Google Play