India Calls TAPI Project "Real Time Investment"

India’s External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid has termed the TAPI gas pipeline project as a "real-time investment" in country's future that would require a lot of patience and forbearance of difficult situations that arise in India's neighbourhood, news agency IANS reported.

"It is not a pipe-dream, but a real-time investment in India's future. But it will require a degree of patience, and forbearance of difficult situations that arise in India's neighbourhood... And if we are going to respond and react to every little difficult situation and allow it to spill over and get out of control into the larger sphere, then we will never be able to fulfil things that we hoped we can do in the next few years, and the TAPI pipeline is one of them," Khurshid said.

His comments come in the backdrop of reports that Pakistan has refused to participate in talks with India on the 1,080-km TAPI gas pipeline project following increased tensions between the two nations over ceasefire violations, IANS said.