MOSCOW, Jan. 24 (UPI) -- Moscow pledged to back the Afghan government in a series of energy projects, including plans to build a pipeline from Turkmenistan, the Russian president said.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev welcomed his Afghan counterpart Hamid Karzai to Moscow for an official state visit. Medvedev during the meetings pledged to support Afghan energy projects, including the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India pipeline, Russia's state-run news agency RIA Novosti reports.
TAPI is a Western-backed rival to an Iranian pipeline from the South Pars gas field in the Persian Gulf. A feasibility study for the pipeline was financed by the Asian Development Bank.
Delegates from India, Pakistan and Afghanistan met Dec. 11 with representatives in Turkmenistan to sign a framework agreement on the natural gas pipeline.
Critics note that Afghanistan doesn't have the infrastructure needed to host the pipeline and security in the country is a major concern.
Kabul said it would commit about 7,000 troops to guard the pipeline when construction starts in 2012, however
Russian energy company Gazprom as recently as October said it was examining a role alongside India in the multilateral TAPI gas pipeline.
India and Pakistan are to get 1.2 billion cubic feet of gas each year from the planned 1,043-mile pipeline, with Afghanistan set for the remaining 700 million cf expected from Turkmenistan natural gas fields.
