Turkmen officials due in Kabul to discuss TAPI: press
Turkmen officials are due to travel to Kabul this week to discuss the development of the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) pipeline, Reuters reported on October 27 citing a Taliban statement.
The pipeline, which would carry 33bn m3/year of gas from Turkmenistan's Galkynysh field to southeast Asia, was first discussed in the 1990s. But the project has struggled to secure financing, in part because of security concerns over the section of the pipeline that would run through Afghanistan.
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The Taliban has expressed its support for TAPI before. It called on its insurgency fighters in 2016 to protect the pipeline, even while they were launching attacks on other Afghan infrastructure. In mid-July, a month before the fall of Kabul to Taliban forces, the group sent a delegation to the Turkmen capital of Ashgabat to discuss the pipeline, according to Radio Free Europe.
Turkmenistan held a formal groundbreaking ceremony for TAPI in December, although the status of construction in Turkmen territory is unclear. Besides security concerns, there are doubts about the pipeline's commercial feasibility, particularly as India and Pakistan have been expanding their LNG import capacity since initially committing to the project.