India’s external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj met with her Turkmenistan counterpart Rasit Meredow on Sunday, on the sidelines of the India-Central Aria Dialogue, focused on enhancing their bilateral cooperation across several sectors.
According to Times of India news reports, Swaraj, who is on a two-day official visit to Uzbekistan, arrived in the ancient city of Samarkand on Saturday, to attend the first India-Central Asia Dialogue, aimed at a plethora of regional issues and enhancing connectivity to the war-torn Afghan country.
In a tweet, the ministry of external affairs spokesperson Raveesh Kumar wrote: “EAM @SushmaSwaraj met the Foreign Minister of Turkmenistan Rasit Meredow on the sidelines of the India-Central Asia Dialogue in #Samarkand. Discussed enhancing bilateral cooperation across sectors.”
EAM @SushmaSwaraj met the Foreign Minister of Turkmenistan Rasit Meredow on the sidelines of the India-Central Asia Dialogue in #Samarkand. Discussed enhancing bilateral cooperation across sectors. pic.twitter.com/p3vhPBtYWO
— Randhir Jaiswal (@MEAIndia) January 13, 2019
India enjoys friendly, close and historical ties with Turkmenistan, and both nations are part of an ambitious TAPI (Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India) pipeline project.
Turkmenistan, considered as the world’s fourth-largest gas reserves, has started to build its sections of the pipeline in December 2015. The TAPI will have a capacity to carry about 90 million of a standard cubic meter a day gas for 30 years.
The initiated project will bring out clean and clear fuel to India’s and Pakistan’s growing economies, and provide energy-hungry India gas in order to run its power plants.
Under this pipeline project, both India and Pakistan will have to provide 1.345 bcfd gas and Afghanistan will fetch a share of 0.5 billion cubic feet per day (bcfd) gas.