TAPI Pipeline Company Limited CEO Muhammetmyrat Amanov and Deputy National Security Advisor of Afghanistan Ebadullah Ebad signed the security plan for the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) gas pipeline in Kabul on Thursday.
In a post on its Twitter account on Friday, Office of the National Security Council (NSC) of Afghanistan said “the plan will protect this major transnational energy project and will foster regional stability by linking Turkmenistan through Afghanistan to the energy markets of South Asia.”
“TAPI is a critical plank of Afghanistan's regional integration and security policy, uniting around common interests the key regional players, including India and Pakistan,” NSC Afghanistan noted in the post.
The total length of the planned TAPI gas pipeline is approximately 1,814 km. Upon its completion, the pipeline is expected to supply up to 33 billion cubic meters of Turkmen natural gas annually to South Asian countries. India and Pakistan are each expected to buy around 14 bcm and the remaining 5 bcm will go to Afghanistan.
The delegation of the Political Office of the Taliban movement led by Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, the head of the office, visited Ashgabat in early February to hold talks at the Foreign Ministry of Turkmenistan to guarantee safety of TAPI natural gas pipeline project, high-voltage power transmission lines and fiber-optic communications along the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan (TAP) route, as well as railways from Turkmenistan to Afghanistan.
