The United Progressive Alliance government has done well to join the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India pipeline sponsored by the Asian Development Bank. But it should guard against the temptation of viewing the project as a substitute for the proposed Iran-Pakistan-India (IPI) pipeline. Given high global oil prices and its growing energy needs, India needs all the gas it can get. Press statements by Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Murli Deora during his recent visit to Islamabad indicate that all outstanding transit issues relating to the 2,700 kilometre pipeline from Iran to India have been resolved. If the formalities are settled soon, the $7.4 billion pipeline can be completed before the projected deadline of 2011 so that Iranian natural gas will become a regular part of India's energy mix. Ever since his visit to Washington in July 2005, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has been sending mixed signals on the IPI project. His lack of public enthusiasm for a project that is vital to meeting India's short- and medium-term energy needs contrasts with his deep engagement with the Indo-U.S. nuclear deal, which is virtually defunct. Fortunately, the government hedged its bets by persisting, in the face of Washington's opposition, with negotiations on the pipeline. It is about time New Delhi gave up its political vacillation and wholeheartedly embraced this historic project. For the Bush administration, the push for TAPI was meant to provide an incentive for India to walk away from the more lucrative and easier-to-implement IPI. The U.S. also sees a Turkmenistan-India pipeline backed by Washington as a means of delinking Central Asia from Russian and Chinese influence. At 1,680 kilometres, TAPI will traverse a shorter distance than IPI to reach India's border at Fazilka. But the territory it has to pass through, especially in Afghanistan, is much more difficult to negotiate, both geologically and politically. Nevertheless TAPI, which is planned to become operational by 2015, is a venture worth pursuing. The involvement of the ADB and other foreign investors will help spread the risk and the positive externalities the project will generate in Afghanistan will benefit India. A section of the Indian establishment fears that Islamabad will use India's dependence on the Pakistan route for importing gas as a lever to exert political pressure. Such fears ignore the positive experience of other regions of the world, notably Europe, in sourcing gas through pipelines; and indeed the success of the Indus Water Treaty between the two South Asian neighbours. In any event, the mutual dependence the IPI and TAPI pipelines will bring should spur India and Pakistan on to consolidate peace and deepen friendship and cooperation.