India puts pipeline talks on slow burner

He suggested to Petroleum Secretary S.C. Tripathi that ‘‘perhaps we should go from the less controversial by moving sequentially’’, to take on the Iran-Pakistan-India pipeline at the end.

Aiyar directed that India’s first talks—without firm commitments—should be with oil ministers of Myanmar and Bangladesh on proposed pipelines. Turkmenistan and Afghanistan should be taken up next, before initiating conversations with Pakistan and Iran on similar gas pipelines.

Today, Pakistan Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz tried to step up the rhetoric on Kashmir ahead of a meeting between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and President Pervez Musharraf by linking the pipeline with progress on the Kashmir issue through ‘‘meaningful talks’’. Musharraf is meeting Singh in New York later this month.

Aziz told a Pakistani newspaper that Islamabad was ready to allow transit facilities and foolproof security to the pipeline provided India dealt the Kashmir issue in an equitable and peaceful manner through meaningful talks.

Aiyar, a votary of an Iran-India pipeline traversing Pakistan, suggested to the PM in July that a novel ‘‘conversations without commitment’’ approach be started with Islamabad on the pipeline. He claimed that he had discussed the approach with External Affairs Minister K Natwar Singh, who was ‘‘favourably inclined’’.

Saran and Aiyar decided on frequent consultations with each other for ‘‘intensive cooperation and coordination’’ and agreed on appointing an additional secretary from the Indian Foreign Service in the oil ministry to deal with diplomatic dimensions of energy security. The two also approved constituting an advisory committee on oil diplomacy and were in agreement on better relationship between Indian missions abroad and visiting delegations of oil firms and their resident offices.