Abdul Hadi Mayar<\/p>\n
US sanctions over any of Pakistan\u2019s deals with Russian companies cannot be ruled out of possibility despite Imran Khan\u2019s icy relations with Washington
\nIn a video statement released post the last week\u2019s visit of Prime Minister Imran Khan to Moscow, Russian President Vladimir Putin said he would soon visit Islamabad to sign an agreement on the Pakistan Stream North-South gas pipeline project.
\nHe also said that he had discussed with the Pakistani Prime Minister issues pertaining to bilateral cooperation and trade.
\nKremlin\u2019s official statement on Imran Khan\u2019s visit was more specific. It stated that the two sides discussed the main aspects of bilateral cooperation and exchanged views on current regional topics, including developments in South Asia. Pakistani state media said, \u201cBoth sides reviewed the entire array of bilateral relations, including economic and energy cooperation, particularly the Pakistan Stream gas pipeline project.\u201d
\nThe intriguing aspect about the visit\u2013taking place at a time when Pakistan\u2019s foreign policy continues to hang in balance between the United States and the Russia-China duo and Islamabad is in dire need to increase its cooperation with Central Asian and Eurasian countries\u2013was its timing.
\nThough Khan\u2019s was a pre-planned trip and invitation for it had been extended much earlier, it took place the same day Russia invaded Ukraine. The Russian side fully used the occasion to convey to the West that it was not isolated on the issue of Ukraine.
\nBesides the timing of the visit, the Russian statements and media reports rang alarm bells in the Western camp prompting West-based analysts to observe that after this visit, \u201cPakistan may have less sympathy in the West.\u201d
\nOne report on Western media even went to the extent of saying that the visit \u201cwill further isolate Pakistan.\u201d
\nHowever, the Prime Minister\u2019s office in Islamabad appeared to be fully alive to apprehensions. It said, \u201cThe Prime Minister stressed that conflict (in Ukraine) was not in any one\u2019s interest.\u201d In an interview with Russian state-controlled television, RT, aired a day before the visit, Imran Khan advised restraint on the Ukraine issue.
\nThough it was a curtain-raiser interview taking place ahead of his much-trumpeted visit to Moscow and setting the agenda for Russian officials\u2019 interaction with him, Imran Khan did not even touch upon Russia\u2019s position on Ukraine, particularly with regard to the West\u2019s policies, which Moscow describes as intrusive in its \u201csphere of interest\u201d in Eastern Europe. Answering one question, Khan even very recklessly appreciated the American \u201cdiversity\u201d not bothering about the repercussions of such remarks ahead of his visit to the rival camps.
\n\u201cThe America I know is very diverse,\u201d he said adding that \u201cthere are sensible voices in the United States.\u201d He even advised that \u201cconflicts and Cold War are not the way.\u201d Do such generalistic rhetoric at a time when his country\u2019s economic meltdown needs concessions from Russia and energy and connectivity cooperation from the Central Asian states, over which Kremlin still enjoys sufficient clout?
\nTo the irony of Pakistan, Khan has also been firing such reckless rockets against the United States \u2013 particularly after President Biden refused to make him a phone call \u2013 which have caused irreparable depletions in relations between Washington and Islamabad.
\nIn nutshell, the tangible benefit of the Prime Minister\u2019s visit to the Russian Federation was the latter\u2019s commitment to go ahead with the Pakistan Stream gas pipeline project, which in itself is yet in the feasibility stage.
\nThe 1124-kilometre Karachi-Kasur North-South Pakistan Stream pipeline was incepted during the Pakistan People\u2019s Party\u2019s previous government in 2015. Later Nawaz Sharif\u2019s administration inherited this project and worked out a deal with Russia. However, the project did not go into the implementation stage due to US sanctions against Russian companies.
\nWhen Imran Khan\u2019s government took power in 2018, it renegotiated the deal and revised the terms of the agreement with Russia in 2021. Under the new deal, 74 per cent of the project\u2019s portfolio is to be owned by Pakistan and 26 per cent by Russian companies.
\nThe initial cost of the pipeline was estimated at $2.25 billion but later it was estimated to cost $3.5. The proposed 56-inch diameter pipeline is contemplated to have the capacity of transporting 12.4 billion cubic metres gas per annum.
\nThe Russian companies are supposed to build the pipeline and operate it for the initial 25 years. Due to Western sanctions, the iconic Russian gas firm, Gazprom, has been excluded from the bidding. Rather, the Eurasian Pipeline Consortium, the steel pipe-maker, TMT and the Operation Services Center of the Russian Energy Ministry are now to lay the pipeline.
\nWhile President Putin and his national companies wish to sign a deal on Pakistan Stream, much water has flown in the Indus River at home. US sanctions over any of Pakistan\u2019s deals with Russian companies cannot be ruled out of possibility despite Imran Khan\u2019s icy relations with Washington.
\nIf gas-deficient Pakistan could not implement the Iran-Pakistan gas pipeline project despite having good-neighbourly and brotherly relations with Iran or if it continues to confront US reservations over Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) gas pipeline project, how will it be able to overlook Washington\u2019s concerns over the involvement of a Russian company on this project? Apart from US sanctions, critical voices over Pakistan Stream have now emerged even inside Pakistan. Both technical and financial questions are in the air about the viability of pipelining the costly imported re-gasified liquid petroleum gas (RLPG).
\nSome media reports in Pakistan even suggest that when Pakistani companies, Sui-Northern Gas Pipeline Limited (SNGPL) and Sui-Southern Gas Pipeline Limited (SSGPL), are capable to construct the pipeline\u2013though with a comparatively reduced diameter\u2013at a very lower cost, then what is the need to involve any foreign company?
\nA recent report even objected to the fact when Pakistan possesses sufficient financial resources in its Gas Infrastructure Development Cess (GIDC), then what the need to involve financing from abroad. Another objection is to the construction of such a \u201cluxuriant\u201d pipeline while Pakistan\u2019s internal gas reserves are depleting and gas import from abroad is being reduced. However, even if the pipeline project runs into snags, the energy and cash strapped Pakistan is under dire need to boost bilateral and multilateral cooperation with Russia and the Central Asian states, if it has to keep pace with its arch-rival, India, which, in recent months, has made many inroads in the Central Asian and the Caucasian markets.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Abdul Hadi Mayar US sanctions over any of Pakistan\u2019s deals with Russian companies cannot be ruled out of possibility despite Imran Khan\u2019s icy relations with Washington In a video statement released post the last week\u2019s visit of Prime Minister Imran Khan to Moscow, Russian President Vladimir Putin said he would soon visit Islamabad to sign […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[2161,870,4679],"class_list":{"0":"post-247934","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-article","7":"tag-abdul-hadi-mayar","8":"tag-kremlin","9":"tag-rendezvous"},"yoast_head":"\n