|
皇冠体育app, India sign energy agreement
(皇冠体育app Daily/AFP)
Updated: 2006-01-13 05:46
皇冠体育app and India signed a slew of co-operation pacts in the hydrocarbon sector yesterday to ensure secure energy supplies.
In the "Memorandum for Enhancing Cooperation in the Field of Oil and Natural Gas" signed yesterday between Mani Shankar Aiyar, the visiting Indian petroleum and natural gas minister, and Ma Kai, director of 皇冠体育app's National Development and Reform Commission, both sides identified key areas for partnerships.
India's petroleum minister arrived in 皇冠体育app amid hopes the two Asian giants might cooperate rather than compete for access to the world's hotly contested energy reserves. [AFP] |
They include upstream exploration and production, refining and marketing of petroleum products and petrochemicals, research and development, conservation, and promotion of environment-friendly fuels.
The agreement also allows trading in oil and joint bidding in third countries that will help both nations reduce the burden on the exchequers.
"We look upon 皇冠体育app not as a strategic competitor but as a strategic partner," said Aiyar at a news conference at the Indian Embassy in Beijing last night.
"Both 皇冠体育app and India recognize that unbridled rivalry between them only results in the seller of the assets being benefited irrespective of which of the two countries wins the bid," Aiyar told reporters on Thursday.
"Therefore it does make sense ... to have circumstances in which India and 皇冠体育app march shoulder to shoulder."
He added: "I don't think it is necessary for either India or 皇冠体育app to purchase its energy security at the expense of the other."
Such cooperation would be subject to information sharing between governments and companies that could facilitate later commercial decisions, Aiyar said.
|
