Foreign Minister Khurshid M Kasuri has confirmed reports that the proposed Pak-Iran gas pipeline might ultimately end up in China. Kasuri said at a lunch meeting hosted by him for newspaper editors here on Friday that the suggestions about Beijing's interest in the project was in addition to Indian intention to subscribe to the proposed gas pipeline. India has opened direct negotiations with Tehran in this connection and indicated that it might seek the pipeline's extension through Pakistan if sufficient security assurances were available.
Kasuri referred briefly to the Iranian gas project while reviewing the "economic activism" Pakistan has launched in recent years and might become a bridge between Far East, South Asia and Central Asian republics. He spoke of Asian Co-operation Dialogue's (ACD) Ministerial conference to open here on Wednesday next and also a seminar to be held on Tuesday on 'Economic Co-operation in Asia'.
He said that Pakistan was in various economic and commercial groupings like Asean, AGCC, Saarc and ECO, but regretted that these fora lack arrangement for a continent-wide co-operation.
The Asian Co-operation Dialogue, the Foreign Minister underlined, was a "platform to pool the collective Asian strengths vis-à-vis other regional blocs".
He said that by its active role in the ACD, Pakistan stood to gain "more than anybody else" as a result of Pan-Asian Co-operation in which development of facilities at Gwadar play a pivotal role. Kasuri said that ACD was the result of initiative from Thailand which recognised the absence of an Asia-wide Forum.
In addition, according to Kasuri, Pakistan was seeking membership of Asia-Europe and Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation.
Pakistan has also been invited to join the Shangrila Dialogue/Asia Security Conference which is scheduled to meet in June this year. According to him, Pakistan has already acceded to the Asean Treaty of Amity and Co-operation.
Negotiations are in progress for Free Preferential Trade Agreements and Comprehensive Economic Partnerships as "we believe in building bloc over bilateral relations and upgrade those".
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