SERKHETABAT (TURKMENISTAN): Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan and India today ceremonially broke ground on the Afghan section of an ambitious, multi-billion dollar gas pipeline expected to help ease energy deficits in South Asia.
Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and Turkmen counterpart Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov joined Pakistani premier Shahid Khaqan Abbasi and India’s External Affairs Minister Shri M J Akbar for the ceremony at gas-rich Turkmenistan’s border with Afghanistan.
Dignitaries including diplomats from the foreign missions in Turkmenistan were greeted by Turkmen national songs and traditional nomadic tents serving up food on an overcast day at the border post of Serkhetabat, once the southernmost tip of the Soviet Union.
Speaking at the ceremony, Ghani said the pipeline would “unite (the) countries” in quotes translated into Russian for reporters at the ceremony. (AGENCIES)
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