Second trilateral meeting to be held in Pak on gas pipeline

New Delhi, May 18 (UNI) Denying reports that Iran and Pakistan had reached an agreement allowing higher offtake of gas by Islamabad from the proposed gas pipeline that would also cover India, Petroleum Minister Murli Deora today said the next trilateral working group meeting on the project would be held on May 22-24.

Iran's Deputy Petroleum Minister (International Affairs) M H Nejad Hosseinian during his visit here on May 1-2 had informed India that no such agreement as reported by a section of the media had been reached with Pakistan, Mr Deora said in a written reply.

The next round of the trilateral meeting would be held in Islamabad, he said.

India was discussing the details of the projects with Iran and Pakistan at bilateral and trilateral levels. So far, three meetings each of the bilateral joint working groups and one meeting of the trilateral working group had been held.

The meetings had discussed various technical, commercial, financial, legal and other issues related to the 2,000-km pipeline project. The progress of the discussions was also reviewed by the Petroleum Ministers of the three countries in Doha last month.

UNI SN MSJ DB1316