Your comment article (AV 4 July p3) refers to China’s refusal to condemn Islamabad’s decision to release Zakir-ur-Rahman Lakhvi, the mastermind behind the Mumbai 26/11 terror attack even when the other four UN Security Council members (US, Britain, Russia and France) did so.
One significant reason could be the fact that on 21 May 2014, Gazprom signed a 30-year agreement to supply to China 25% of China’s gas requirements- about 38 billion cubic metres of gas per year from 2018.
A gas pipeline has to be built that would have to cross Pakistan territory to reach China. The Republic of China now accounts for half of the extra demand for world gas supply. Its demand growth rate was 13.3% in 2013.
The Russian company, Gazprom, produces 1/7 of world gas output. In 2014, it produced 470 billion cubic metres of natural gas. It supplied 75% of Russian demand and 30% of all the former Soviet Union countries’ and the entire European Union’s demand.
Its gas pipeline systems transporting gas from Western Siberian fields and other gas production centres comprises the world largest Unified Gas Supply System (UGSS) reaching every major city in Russia and Europe.
Nagindas Khajuria
By email
