The Taliban* movement has called for the “speedy resumption” of interbank financing to enable the implementation of a 1,600-kilometre-long TAPI (Turkmenistan–Afghanistan–Pakistan–India) gas pipeline project, which was agreed upon by the four governments in 2010.
Mohammad Harun Saidi, the trade attache of the Afghanistan Embassy in Turkmenistan, told Russian media in Ashgabat that the international interbank communication channels must be unfrozen to help fund the project’s construction.
“We want our money, frozen in banks, to quickly become available and [channels] of international institutions that should finance and help us to open [the pipeline],” the embassy delegate stated.
Interbank channels were frozen due to Western sanctions in the wake of the Taliban storming back to power in Kabul in August 2021.
Saidi noted that Afghanistan’s share of participation in the project was to the tune of $150 million, and the total project cost was around $7 billion.
The Asian Development Bank (ADB), which committed to fund the project in 2015, suspended its involvement in March 2022 until the Taliban achieved international recognition.
In recent months, the Turkmenistan and Pakistan governments have also been demanding that sanctions against Afghanistan be lifted so that work can resume on the energy project.
The two governments signed a joint implementation plan for the TAPI project in July this year.
At the first-ever India-Central Asia Leaders’ Summit in New Delhi last March, the Turkmenistan president underlined the “importance” of the project.
The TAPI pipeline will reportedly transport around 33 billion cubic meters (bcm) of natural gas annually from Turkmenistan to Afghanistan (5 percent), Pakistan (47.5 percent) and India (47.5 percent) for a period of 30 years once it becomes fully-operational.
*under UN sanctions