India-Pakistan Global Trade Deal Nears Final Stages

A global trade pact between India and Pakistan, involving the construction of a $7 billion gas pipeline by 2011, is close to being sealed after officials from both countries concluded their bilateral talks in New Delhi last Thursday. The global trade deal allows India and Pakistan to finance their respective shares of the pipeline traversing their boundaries.

India's Petroleum Secretary confirmed that a memorandum regarding transport costs has already been signed by Pakistan, but the details of the matter will still be discussed in another bilateral meeting in Islamabad come July. Afterward, the two countries will have a meeting with Iran.
Hojatollah Ghanimi-Fard, Executive Director for International Affairs of the National Iranian Oil Company and Iran's representative for the project, is looking forward to the signing of the global trade deal by July.

Iran is home to the world's second largest oil depot. However, possible foreign investments in the country are in peril in the light of looming global trade sanctions due to its refusal to end its uranium enrichment program. Pakistan and India are bent on pushing through with the global trade deal. Jonathan Stern of the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies pointed out that Iran never had the capacity to pursue global trade deals. He said that even if the tension in Iran cools down, investor confidence in the country will never be good.