Sharif govt puts Iran pipeline 'off the table'.

[AhsanAmin]

Turkey is closer to United States and Europe and Turkey imports huge amount of gas from Iran despite any international pressure. And they are investing in Iran's gas exploration and gas field devlopment. The volume of Turkey-Iran trade is huge and is probably more than 20 billion dollars. Because Turkish people keep their own interest supreme before the interests of any foreign country's interest.

Just like we talk about trade with India and better ties with India, in a similar spirit, we also must promote trade with Iran and restore friendly ties between the two people without making alliance against any third country.

Really Iran's side of pipeline has been built already which means they are more than willing for gas export to go ahead and we can expect they would be willing to give us good concessions on gas price as opposed to importing costlier gas from Qatar at higher prices. When we make comparison between gas prices Qatar gives India to gas price quoted in our agreements, we say that India is a larger customer so Qatar will not match his per unit price given to India for us. I am sure Iranians would give us a better deal that Qatar has given India per thermal unit of gas because we are a "natural customer" for them which is not the case with Qatar.

And opponents of gas import deal and other trade do not realize, that any aid we get from foreign countries to keep our economic relations with Tehran lukewarm, is going to be less beneficial to our country than the benefit from cheaper gas and trade with Iran.

And we also have to try to diversify our trade partners and start trading more with Iran, India, Afghansistan and China. This really does not mean that we should decrease existing trade with other trading partners, we have to explore markets in our neighboring countries and when we will have more interwined economic interests in our region, there will be far more peace because countries would realize that the cost of making any trading partner unstable will hurt the economic interests of the very country itself. And once there is peace in the region, and we see fruits of peace, more aversion to war and current machiavellian tactics will follow.

 

[Kompromat]

@Aeronaut, sir is it allowed to comment old threads related strictly to defemce or strategic matters??

As long as they are open, sure.

 

[Edevelop]

Foreign Policy is indeed written in Riyadh but either way it was not as if the Gas was being offered for free. It was pretty expensive per unit and no one wanted to fund our side of pipeline. Also this time around the year, terrorists in Baluchistan have been blowing stuff up so it would have been difficult to protect those resources in the first place

 

[AhsanAmin]

but either way it was not as if the Gas was being offered for free

Gas is certainly not free but the benefits of cheaper gas as compared to gas from other sources over the years will be huge for our economy. We have to know our interests and not play anybody's game.

no one wanted to fund our side of pipeline.

I have heard reports to the contrary.

Also this time around the year, terrorists in Baluchistan have been blowing stuff up so it would have been difficult to protect those resources in the first place

I have read news that our experts want the route of Pak-Chinese highway to Kashghar to include different parts of Balochistan. Defending the pipeline is probably easier if we can defend the international traffic on the highway where anything going wrong can have far worse consequences.

Though this is not directly related to the topic of the thread, when I looked at the proposed map of Pak-Chinese highway, I realized that, God forbid, any third country can take military advantage of higway along the Arabian Sea coast in Balochistan. It has to be approved by military strategists.

 

[jarves]

I have heard reports to the contrary..

Share them please !

 

[AhsanAmin]

Gas pipeline: Iranian firm offers to completely finance and construct Pakistan’s side

They have shown some interest. It is very clear that agreement with Tehran will have to be re-negotiated with reference to gas prices. And we do not know how good a deal they would be willing to give us until we ask them for formal talks on the issue with sincerity.

 

[SBD-3]

Our oil imports from Iran has sky jumped, sanctions or not.

Essar's oil imports from Iran jump sharply - The Economic Times<------ news of today


And paying it too

India ready to pay $1.5 billion to Iran for oil: official | NDTV.com

News an hour ago.

It is because Iran offered a discounted price along with increased defferred period to India in a bid to stabalize its crumbling oil exports.
Iran offers discounts on oil, free shipping to India - Rediff.com Business

After the sanctions by western nations blocked all other payment routes, Iran had raised a few invoices for oil it sold to India in rupees but stopped doing so soon after.

It has reverted to the old system of taking only 45 per cent of the payments due in rupees and for the rest is seeking payments in rouble, yen or yuan.

The same issue that I highlighted.

 

[AhsanAmin]

It is because Iran offered a discounted price along with increased defferred period to India in a bid to stabalize its crumbling oil exports.
Iran offers discounts on oil,way ee shipping to India - Rediff.com Business

Really this seems funny that we do not take benefit of better oil prices from our neighbor Iran while India, Turkey and others are importing and exporting everything they would like. Our actions in this regard simply hurt us and do not in any way help sanctions which are anyway being violated by countries who do not take any guideline from foreigners. If the forum members bear with my bad humor, I would recall the old proverb,"To kill two birds with one stone."

 

[SBD-3]

Really this seems funny that we do not take benefit of better oil prices from our neighbor Iran while India, Turkey and others are importing and exporting everything they would like. Our actions in this regard simply hurt us and do not in any way help sanctions which are anyway being violated by countries who do not take any guideline from foreigners. If the forum members bear with my bad humor, I would recall the old proverb,"To kill two birds with one stone."

Like I said before, we still do settlements with Iran either through barter or ACU but these payment and settlement mechanisms are insufficient to settle and support large trade volumes. The day US lifts financial sanctions, arranging funds for pipeline and funding the trade would not be an issue.

 

[acid rain]

Everybody buys from iran including japan, south korea and eu, funny that a next door neighbor cannot do it.

I guess if it comes to any policy discussions with pakistan...people should approach riyadh instead of islamabad.

 

[AhsanAmin]

Like I said before, we still do settlements with Iran either through barter or ACU but these payment and settlement mechanisms are insufficient to settle and support large trade volumes. The day US lifts financial sanctions, arranging funds for pipeline and funding the trade would not be an issue.

How can other countries like Turkey and India settle their trades? As I earlier said that volume of Iran's trade with Turkey is more than 20 billion dollars.

 

[Contrarian]

Iran gas project off the table: minister - DAWN.COM

“In the absence of international sanctions the project can be completed within three years, but the government cannot take it any further at the moment because international sanctions against Iran are a serious issue,” he said in reply to a supplementary question put by PML-N lawmaker Zahra Wadood.

Bull$hit.
India is buying Iranian oil and is now able to pay for it as well using regular banking systems.

 

[janon]

Bull$hit.
India is buying Iranian oil and is now able to pay for it as well using regular banking systems.

Some countries are more vulnerable to international pressure than others.

You have to remember that in addition to the USA, Saudi Arabia is also pressurizing Pak to stop trading with Saudi's archrival. Pak simply cannot afford to displease all these bigwigs.

I really hope India builds the proposed undersea gas pipeline from Iran.

 

[Contrarian]

I really hope India builds the proposed undersea gas pipeline from Iran.

Its almost imperative that we do so.

 

[SBD-3]

Bull$hit.
India is buying Iranian oil and is now able to pay for it as well using regular banking systems.

Well that doesn't satisfy anything but perhaps ego?

How can other countries like Turkey and India settle their trades? As I earlier said that volume of Iran's trade with Turkey is more than 20 billion dollars.

But important question is how it is settled? Iranian petrol is smuggled into Pakistan. It too is settled somehow. But I am not aware of the settlement arrangements between the countries. I know for Pakistan which I have told here before.