India commmitted to make IPI pipeline a reality: PM

New Delhi, Aug 23 (UNI) Reaffirming India's committment to making the Iran-Pakistan-India (IPI) gas pipeline project a reality, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today said New Delhi was determined to strengthen its relations with Tehran as the two countries had civilisational ties for several centuries.

''New Delhi would pursue the Iran-Pakistan-India gas pipeline and work to make it a reality,'' he said in the Lok Sabha, during his reply to a debate on the Indo-US nuclear deal.

On the controversy relating to Iran's nuclear ambitions, he said that of late, there has been a positive realisation that coercive methods were not desirable and the problem could be resolved only through dialogue.

''While Tehran has all the privileges of a signatory country to the nuclear non-proliferation treaty (NPT), it also has to honour the obligations that go with it,'' he said.

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