US Deputy Chief Mission in Pakistan Richard Hoagland has said cooperation in the field of civil nuclear technology is not on the cards, but anything is possible in the future.
Talking about Iran Pakistan Gas Pipeline, he said “No one is making any threat against Pakistan… it simply means that legal sanctions do exist.”
Speaking to a group of journalists after the roundtable session of Pakistan 100 Awards and Summit held here on Friday, he said, “I tell you frankly, its (civil nuclear cooperation like India) not on the cards right now, but anything is possible in the future, but let’s take it step by step.”
Responding a question, Hoagland said, “You know what, Pakistan Iran Gas Pipeline is still a number of years off. You know what, the feasibility studies have not even been completed. You know what, it will take a number of years to actually do the construction and its going to take a number of years, may be, to find the financing for the project.” “Look, it’s no secret that there are international sanctions regimes because of certain political questions involving Iran right now.” He said, “No one is making a threat against Pakistan. It simply means that these legal sanctions do exist. But I want to emphasis that’s rather far in the future as it’s not happening tomorrow, it’s not happening next month. So let’s relax for a little bit and look at these other forms of renewable energy, we can help find together.”
He said, “Access to energy is key to success. We saw what happened during the most recent months during load-shedding in a number of factories in Faisalabad for example, they have to close their units when those factories have lost some of their international orders for the goods they produce. So energy is essential. As these businessmen around the table just said we need to look at new forms of energy as for they are focusing more on renewable energy whether solar, or wind or biotechnology, all of that.” The US deputy chief mission said “Part of our job is to bring people together. We have some technologies, we have some bright people, you have some terribly bright people, I think I will love to see partnerships in building energy security for the future.”