TEHRAN (FNA)- Iranian Ambassador to India, Ali Chegeni, was reported byIndia’s The Hindu newspaper on September 10 as telling members of theIndian Association of Foreign Affairs Correspondents that “Iran is nowdiscussing a Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) pipeline to China along theChina-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), as India is not expected to retainits prior interest in LNG imports from Iran”.
This remark hasn’t received the attention that it deserves, however,despite it being a visionary proposal for strengthening regionalintegration.
First things first, it’s important to explain the context in which it wasmade. Ambassador Chegeni was talking about the consequences of India’sdecision to comply with the US unilateral sanctions against his country’senergy industry, which he was understandably displeased with. Still, heremained very professional when addressing this issue, even saying that “Welove the Indian people. But we cannot force somebody to love us. Thegovernment of India has to decide according to its national interest. Justas the Chinese have”.
It’s here where one can better understand why the diplomat decided toreveal the existence of hitherto unreported discussions between his countryand China over the proposal to build an LNG pipeline to the latter viaCPEC. China, unlike India, only complies with international law and not thedictates of any individual country like the US whose demands run contraryto the aforesaid, which is rightly respected by Iran.
Furthermore, there has previously been news about connecting the Iranianport of Chabahar with CPEC’s terminal one of Gwadar. It therefore makessense for Iran to consider how it could take ties with China to the nextlevel by including an energy dimension into its plans to integrate withCPEC, which is the flagship project of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI),as India is no longer regarded as a reliable customer of its enegysupplies. A CPEC-parallel pipeline (E-CPEC+, with the “E” referring to”energy”) would be the natural outcome of the unfortunate situation thatIran has found itself forced into and thus help turn a regrettablesituation into a positive one for all.
Strengthening regional integration is the embodiment of the win-win outlookon international relations, yet doing so in the manner proposed by theIranian Ambassador to India might cause some concern among his hosts whoremain opposed to CPEC because of their claims to the Kashmir disputedterritory that have resulted in them holding the official position that theproject transits through disputed territory that they consider to be theirown.
Read Top Stories
Being aware of this backdrop, it’s more newsworthy that it was AmbassadorChegeni who revealed the existence of these pipeline discussions and notany other Iranian official because it shows how seriously the country isconsidering this, but also that it cares about not offending India’ssensitivities too. That’s why it was Iran’s top representative to India whobroke the news and explained why his country was pursuing that possiblecourse of action, chiefly in response to India’s voluntary compliance withthe US sanctions regime.
In the event that the negotiations are a success and eventually lead toE-CPEC+ entering into activity sometime in the future, then it wouldrepresent a pragmatically reliable form of indefinite sanctions relief forIran, the strengthening of regional integration processes, and ultimatelyan exemplary form of South-South cooperation among the three countriesinvolved. In addition, these positive outcomes might convince India tomoderate its uncompromising position against both CPEC and BRI andtherefore accept that both of them are here to stay.
Even if it remains opposed to them, Iran nevertheless has the sovereignright to participate in any regional integration projects that it wants to,especially those such as E-CPEC+ which could ensure its long-term economicsecurity amidst the US ever-tightening sanctions pressure that alreadycompelled India into discontinuing its import of its historic partner’sresources. It would be best for everyone if India supported Iran’s pipelineplans, but its lack of support wouldn’t have any influence on stopping thisproposal in that case.
