Islamabad: The much-awaited ground breaking ceremony of the of Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) gas pipeline project would be held in December this year, Deputy Prime Minister for Oil and Gas and Special Envoy of the President of Turkmenistan, Baymurat Hojamuhamedov said on Monday.
In a meeting with Nawaz Sharif at the PM House, the deputy premier of Turkmenistan also extended the prime minister an invitation to visit Turkmenistan to attend the president’s ceremony.
Accepting the invitation, the prime minister reiterated that Pakistan strongly supported the project and its early completion. He said TAPI would meet energy requirement of the region besides benefiting countries in the region.
He discussed the regional connectivity initiative with Hojamuhamedov and said that rail and road links between Gwadar and Central Asia would increase the economic activity in the region adding that Pakistan would facilitate Turkmenistan and Central Asian countries to develop rail and road links up to Gwadar.
Chairman State Agency for Management and Use for Hydrocarbon Resources, Yagshygeldy Kakaev Ambassador for Turkmenistan AladjanMovlamov, Federal Minister for Petroleum Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, Advisor to PM on National Security Sartaj Aziz and Minister of State for Petroleum Jam Kamal attended the meeting.
