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US pressing India to stop IPI project

Actually its of no benefit to Pakistan to negotiate price deal with Iran if India sits out. Pakistan is hoping to make money on transit fees. Gas is abundant in Pakistan for domestic use. Even if Pakistan is a consumer in this case, it is a paltry amount compared to the volume needed for India.

And I am not so sure about uncle sam sitting in Iran that easily. Americans can try the Osirak or a Libya on Iran but there will be no occupation. Mark my words...American public will not support it and American military does not have the fitness to carry this operation out (putting boots on the ground and actually taking over as was done in Iraq).

This is a very fair analysis and I agree with it.
I don't see any viability of the project in case India backout and the price of gas does not come down to feasible levels.

Where as Indians as usuall were playing from the begining, they used IPI as a tool to force US to into race with Iran of energy deal.
I think India duped all parties involved i.e. US, Iran and Pakistan.
Imagine if today, Iran reduce the prices to acceptable level! will India still go ahead with the project? I think NO.
I think now Iran should very wisely reduce the price and see what happens.
As far Iran and US are concerned they are not familiar with Indian tactics but Pakistan is very well versed with Indians line of action, why they did not ask for any gaurantees to prevent India from being backingout at later stages.
 
I think India duped all parties involved i.e. US, Iran and Pakistan.

Finally a good post,lol. India used IPI to pressure US to tackle all the Nuclear Deal hurdles... and gift them to India.... Us agreed to Indian terms, so that Indian dont go the Iranian way.
What a classic,innovative tactic, good for India and Indians.
 
AoA
Is there any info on who would have paid for the actual pipeline assuming the price negotiation were completed for gas for all 3 parties satisfaction?
 
IPI was a terrible idea for India from the very beginning. An energy life line passing straight through Pakistan. Thank god its dead, otherwise i cannot imagine the amount of black mailing India would have been subjected to.

But India has no problem in having a pipeline run through Bangladesh from gas fields in Myanmar. Why didn't US shout about this projected deal as Myanmar is another country on its hit list but probably not as high as Iran but near enough. From Indian sources I hear that Myanmar is also trying acquire nuclear weapons. Is this double standards or hypocrisy or both?
 
But India has no problem in having a pipeline run through Bangladesh from gas fields in Myanmar. Why didn't US shout about this projected deal as Myanmar is another country on its hit list but probably not as high as Iran but near enough. From Indian sources I hear that Myanmar is also trying acquire nuclear weapons. Is this double standards or hypocrisy or both?

Maybe its the fact that Myanmar doesn't have a nuclear program yet? Maybe its because they haven't threatened global domination yet?

Hell...I've never heard the Myanmar govt. utter a single word in the global arena. Its like Mongolia. Noone cares what happens there because it doesn't affect anyone.
 
Maybe its the fact that Myanmar doesn't have a nuclear program yet? Maybe its because they haven't threatened global domination yet?

Hell...I've never heard the Myanmar govt. utter a single word in the global arena. Its like Mongolia. Noone cares what happens there because it doesn't affect anyone.

MYANMAR: Going nuclear?

By C. S. Kuppuswamy

SAAG - June 5, 2007

Russia has agreed to build a nuclear research centre in Myanmar according to a statement of the Russian atomic energy agency Rosatom released to the press in May 2007. The centre will comprise a 10 MW light-water reactor working on 20%-enriched uranium-235, an activation analysis laboratory, a medical isotope production laboratory, silicon doping system, nuclear waste system and burial facilities. The time schedule or the location for setting up this facility has not been given out. Rosatom Head Sergey Kiriyenko and Myanmar’s Science and Technology Minister U Thaung signed the deal in Moscow.

Myanmar’s aspirations to acquire nuclear technology can be traced back to as early as November 2001, when it came to light that two Pakistani nuclear scientists (Suleiman Asad and Mohamed Ali Mukhtar ) had moved over to Myanmar in 2001, when US intelligence agencies were investigating the involvement of Pak nuclear scientists with the Al Qaeda network.

In January 2002, the then foreign minister Win Aung had conveyed that Myanmar was committed to developing a nuclear research facility for medical purposes and also possibly to generate nuclear power Russia was to set up a nuclear reactor under an agreement with Myanmar in 2002. The reactor as per the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) officials was not suitable for nuclear weapons. The deal did not materialize because of financial constraints of Myanmar. However Russia had provided training to Myanmar scientists and military personnel in Russia since 2003 under this agreement. The present agreement again indicates that Russia will be training 300-350 specialists every year.

In an editorial of Burma digest (March 2007), a publication of the rebels, Taisamyone elaborates as to why Myanmar wants to become a nuclear power. The possession of nuclear weapons will be a major deterrent against a possible UNSC military action against the regime. Despite its cordial relations with China and India, the nuclear capability will put the SPDC on equal negotiating terms with these regional powers. The nuclear capability will also help Myanmar to threaten its neighbour Thailand (which has a more professional army) as well as to be in a position of strength in negotiating with other South East Asian nations.
The US has strongly criticized the Russian move to help Myanmar in establishing a nuclear research centre. State Department spokesman Tom Casey said that Myanmar had neither the “legal frame” nor the “safeguard provisions” for a nuclear programme. He also expressed concerns that there were no “accounting mechanisms or other kinds of security procedures” to prevent nuclear fuel from being stolen.

In this context it is of significance to note that Myanmar has reestablished formal bilateral relations with North Korea in end April 2007 (it was severed in 1983). A report indicates that clandestine military ties are however existing since 1999. Clifford McCoy, a Chiang Mai based journalist, writes that there was a speculation that North Korea was building a nuclear reactor with Russian assistance as early as in 2003. He adds that the military junta may see the potential upside to North Korea’s recent nuclear brinkmanship against the United States. Some suspicious shipments from North Korea to Myanmar have also been tracked recently by the US agencies.

China has been a staunch ally of Myanmar for a long time. China has supplied more than $ 1 billion worth of military hardware. The bulk of the aircrafts with the Myanmar air force is of Chinese origin. China has supplied missile boats fitted with missiles and patrol boats to the Myanmar Navy. The Myanmar naval facilities are being modernized with Chinese assistance. China is involved in a big way in improving the infrastructure facilities in Myanmar. China’s reactions on the present nuclear deal with Russia have not come to light but the Chinese may not have any objection. Chinese help to Myanmar in acquiring nuclear capability at a future date cannot also be ruled out.

Pakistan will be too happy to have Myanmar (another India’s neighbour) as a nuclear power. With the two Pak scientists allegedly continuing to stay in Myanmar in an advisory capacity, Pakistan may also stealthily or otherwise help Myanmar with nuclear material or know-how.

News Analysis

Myanmar is a member of the IAEA and thus the nuclear research centre to be established will be monitored by the IAEA. Will Myanmar stand by its commitments for safeguards and inspection? Myanmar has sufficient oil and gas resources like Iran. Yet will it go the Iranian way? It is too early to say.

The avowed purpose of the centre may be generation of nuclear power and medical research. Knowing the way the secretive military junta functions, the long term goal is perhaps to become a nuclear power. The reactor that is being supplied can not be used for a nuclear weapons programme.

With the close cooperation of Myanmar with the powers inimical to the policies of the west such as North Korea, China and Pakistan, supply of nuclear material and know-how by these powers to Myanmar cannot be ruled out..

ASEAN has not been able to exert pressure even to bring in some political reforms in Myanmar. With Indonesia also trying to have such a nuclear facility for peaceful purposes, ASEAN can do little to Myanmar in this regard.

US and the IAEA have now a serious task on hand to prevent proliferation in the South East Asian region.

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Myanmar is a member of the IAEA and thus the nuclear research centre to be established will be monitored by the IAEA. Will Myanmar stand by its commitments for safeguards and inspection? Myanmar has sufficient oil and gas resources like Iran. Yet will it go the Iranian way? It is too early to say.

Myanmar, as I said, is completely neutral at the moment. It hasn't openly expressed hostilities towards any nation.
 
Myanmar is a member of the IAEA and thus the nuclear research centre to be established will be monitored by the IAEA. Will Myanmar stand by its commitments for safeguards and inspection? Myanmar has sufficient oil and gas resources like Iran. Yet will it go the Iranian way? It is too early to say.

Myanmar, as I said, is completely neutral at the moment. It hasn't openly expressed hostilities towards any nation.

You are still missing my point. Myanmar does have international sanctions against it. The issue is that you do not want a pipeline going across Pakistan into India but you do not mind the same in the case of Bangladesh. What is the difference here?
 
You are still missing my point. Myanmar does have international sanctions against it. The issue is that you do not want a pipeline going across Pakistan into India but you do not mind the same in the case of Bangladesh. What is the difference here?

Because Myanmar and Bangladesh are not hostile to India.

Pakistan is hostile to India, and in its present unstable state, cannot be trusted to uphold an agreement.
 
Because Myanmar and Bangladesh are not hostile to India.

Pakistan is hostile to India, and in its present unstable state, cannot be trusted to uphold an agreement.

Unstable state? ohh ok but if this gas line project would had been completed then there was no need for india to infiltrate through afghanistan for cross boder terrorism into pakistan, but then i guess india doesnt want it to stop, it wants to destabilize pakistan eitherway.
Anyhow if the gas pipe line project would have been completed, it would have started a new turn in the region specially between india and pakistan.
 
Because Myanmar and Bangladesh are not hostile to India.

But India complains that Bangladesh gives safe-sanctuary to ULFA leaders and fighters and that the country has become a hotbed of Islamic terrorism. I assume that none of this is true then and Bangladesh is in fact a stable country. This is what you are implying when you describe Pakistan as a unstable country.

Thanks for the partial admission that Bangladesh is not the trouble maker in relations between it and India.
 
Bangla vows to nab Paresh Baruah

NISHIT DHOLABHAI

New Delhi, Aug. 3: Bangladesh today admitted for the first time that Ulfa commander-in-chief Paresh Barua was on its territory and even promised to track down the man who is “heard” but never seen.

As the two-day home secretary-level summit drew to a close in the capital, it was clear that the ice was thawing between India and a recalcitrant neighbour that has been loath to admit the presence of militants.

The Bangladesh delegation, led by home secretary Mohammed Abdul Karim, promised action against all militant groups using that country as a base to destabilise India, particularly the Northeast. The big surprise was the promise to trace the fugitive chief of Ulfa’s armed wing.

The visiting team said Barua was arrested in 2002 and released the very next year at the insistence of the Bangladesh Human Rights Commission. He jumped bail and has since been elusive.

Another Ulfa leader, general secretary Anup Chetia, was lodged in a Bangladesh jail for some years and released in 2006 when his term ended, sources quoted the delegation as saying.

More at:

Bangaldesh to Nab ULFA
 
You are still missing my point. Myanmar does have international sanctions against it. The issue is that you do not want a pipeline going across Pakistan into India but you do not mind the same in the case of Bangladesh. What is the difference here?

If the Bangla govt decides to protect the pipeline going thru its land it can give one as it doesn not have to deal with any insurgency. Thats not the case with GOP. There are strong atni govt forces working inside Pakistan who will do anything to undermine GOP. And moreover GOP itself has a history of being hostile to India and can easily shut down the pipeline.
 
But India complains that Bangladesh gives safe-sanctuary to ULFA leaders and fighters and that the country has become a hotbed of Islamic terrorism. I assume that none of this is true then and Bangladesh is in fact a stable country. This is what you are implying when you describe Pakistan as a unstable country.

Thanks for the partial admission that Bangladesh is not the trouble maker in relations between it and India.

You are home to, or is a sanctuary to these extremists. And they will do anything to keep their sanctuary and their bosses happy by abiding to whatever they say!!!
 

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