TAPI: Prospects and Challenges

The groundbreaking ceremony of the TAPI gas pipeline was held in Ashgabat on December 12, 2015, the four parties being represented, respectively, by President G. Berdimuhamedov, President Ashraf Ghani, Prime Minister Mian Muhammad Nawaz Sharif and Indian Vice President Mohammad Hamid Ansari. The conference was titled “A policy of neutrality: international co-operation for peace, security and development” and was held as part of the International Conference convened in Ashgabat to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Turkmenistan’s Permanent Neutrality. All in all, despite questions being raised by the worldwide press in the past regarding the skepticism addressed towards the hydrocarbon projects, the event was successful. Turkmenistan is one the independent republic of the Soviet Union. It has huge reserves of natural gas and geo-economic position. In this regard the Turkmen leaders to take advantage of this opportunity to seek diversification of export markets and gain more freedom from Russia via transporting to Afghanistan , Pakistan and India. The main question is “what are the obstacles the implementation of the pipeline”. The main hypothesis is emphasized that disputes between India and Pakistan, between Afghanistan and Pakistan. Russia s position on the TAPL and trying to maintain a monopoly and terrorist groups are such obstacles. The method in this paper is based on described – analysis.