India’s negotiators have begun to play slightly hardball. But the recently speculated shift in India’s official position is as likely a negotiating tactic as it is an actual shift in thinking. Nevertheless it is good news, because it is a step in the right direction. Essentially, the Indian government is asking for door-delivery — leaving the Iranians to work out the tricky business of securing the pipeline along its route across Pakistani territory. Not a bad idea at all, even if it means a slightly higher power bill.
This is fine as far as abstract things like business models, guarantees and ownership go — but it still does not resolve that little matter of whether Pakistan’s rebellious tribesmen will be any less inclined to take potshots at the pipeline given that it is owned by those nice Iranians. And whether the nice Iranians, on their part, will treat any official Pakistani disruption of the pipeline traffic as an act hostile enough to call for stern enforcement.
Related Link: Piper calls the tune (IE)
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