Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan and India (TAPI) have agreed to work together to develop an estimated $10 billion, 1800 km transnational gas pipeline that would distribute Turkmen gas throughout the "perpetually energy-short" region.

Turkmenistan is confident of overcoming security challenges to the project, Indian Vice President Hamid Ansari said after meeting with the President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov in Ashgabat. “The President of Turkmenistan, is very confident, and he thinks it can be done,” Mr. Ansari told The Hindu in response to concerns over Taliban attacks in Afghanistan and the situation in Pakistan.

Calling the pipeline “one of those great ideas in regional cooperation, that we have only dreamt of, that hasn’t materialized until now,” Mr. Ansari said he was “very optimistic” that “things will begin to roll” after the groundbreaking ceremony that was held this past Sunday, that was also attended by Pakistan PM Nawaz Sharif and Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani.

Speaking to The Hindu in a brief interaction at the Mahatma Gandhi memorial park in Ashgabat city centre, that was inaugurated earlier this year by PM Modi, Vice-President Ansari also said that the TAPI project would not affect India’s plans to explore alternative pipelines from Iran via Oman in an offshore link, or the Iran-Pakistan-India project. “From India’s point of view, we are going to be perpetually energy-short. For us, the choice is not between this source or that source, for us the option is: every possible source. So this is not excluded nor is any other source excluded,” Mr. Ansari said.

While outstanding financing issues continue to raise questions about TAPI's feasibility, the project's supporters maintain that outside sources, particularly the Asia Development Bank, will play a significant role in providing the necessary funds to complete the project.