The implementation of the projects of the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) gas pipeline and the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan (TAP) power transmission line was discussed in Ashgabat by a visiting Afghan delegation headed by Acting Minister of Foreign Affairs of Afghanistan Amir Khan Mottaki.

This issue was discussed at a meeting with the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Turkmenistan Rashid Meredov.

This project has huge potential for the economies of the region and for building interconnectivity between South Asia and Central Asia, not to mention for sustaining the efforts for Afghanistan’s rebuilding process.

However, the security of the pipeline and the project as a whole depend on the negotiations with Taliban (banned by Russia as a terrorist group).

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Taliban movement published a message on Twitter, which reported that, following the results of negotiations in Ashgabat, an agreement was reached with Turkmenistan on the timing of the resumption of work on the TAPI gas pipeline construction project.

In particular, it was reported that work on electricity supply, the TAPI project and the expansion of the railway will be opened and started in March 2022.

It was also reported that a meeting of the technical group of Afghanistan and Turkmenistan on the implementation of joint projects will be held in Kabul on January 22.

TAPI has long been hailed as a monumentally important project, solving not just Turkmenistan’s limited customer problem, but more importantly, bringing much-needed energy resources to South Asia – if it can ever be built.

*The Taliban is a terrorist organization banned in Russia