Ahmadinejad arrives in India for energy talks
Foreign Desk Report

NEW DELHI—Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad arrived in India on his first official visit to try to seal a $7.6 billion pipeline deal linking the world’s second-largest gas reserves to growing South Asian economies.
Ahmadinejad will meet Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in a brief stop-over trip that has already sparked diplomatic tension between New Delhi and Washington, which opposes the pipeline because of fears it will fund Iran’s nuclear ambitions.
The Iranian leader visited Pakistan on Monday before moving on to Sri Lanka. Islamabad and Tehran said they had settled a host of issues over the pipeline project, which could be completed by 2012.
It would initially transport 60 million cubic metres of gas (2.2 billion cubic feet) daily to Pakistan and India, half for each country, but capacity would be raised later to 150 million cubic metres.
New Delhi also wants to revive a 2005 agreement to import 5 million tonnes of liquefied natural gas from Iran. Washington urged India this month to use Ahmadinejad’s visit to encourage Iran to stop nuclear enrichment. India, which has been growing closer to the United States in recent years, responded sharply — saying that it did not need any “guidance” on its bilateral relations. India will also hope to improve diplomatic relations with Tehran which have been strained. It voted against Iran at the International Atomic Energy Agency in 2006, and launched an Israeli spy satellite earlier this year. India has been boycotting trilateral meetings on the Iran pipeline since mid-2007, citing it first wanted to resolve the issues of transit fees and transportation tariffs with Pakistan.
Earlier on Tuesday, Ahmadinejad launched a project to boost the capacity of Sri Lanka’s main oil refinery, part of a $1.5 billion loan to the government as Iran extends its energy ties in South Asia. Ahmadinejad’s visit came as Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa, increasingly isolated over criticism from Western countries about his government’s human rights record in a 25-year-old civil war with Tamil Tiger separatists, seeks closer ties with Asian countries.
“We can ensure security and fair play for all ... but in the world some powerful nations do not allow such a situation and they have created divisions among people and nationalities,” Ahmadinejad said at the launch in remarks through an interpreter. “The peoples of Sri Lanka and Iran are against the policies of the nations who are the enemies of humanity.”
Iran had pledged a $1.5 billion loan to fund a raft of infrastructure projects in Sri Lanka, including a deal to boost oil refinery capacity and a 100-megawatt hydropower project. The project aims to boost production of Sri Lanka’s existing Sapugaskanda oil refinery in Colombo from 50,000 barrels per day to 100,000 bpd.
Hours before Ahmadinejad arrived in Colombo, the national power grid crashed for the second time in a month, underlining the precarious state of Sri Lanka’s infrastructure. Building new or upgrading existing infrastructure has been a low priority in the island nation because of the civil war between the state and Tamil Tiger rebels that has killed more than 70,000 people.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Tuesday launched a 1.2-billion-dollar project largely funded by Tehran to upgrade Sri Lanka’s sole oil refinery, officials said. Ahmadinejad and Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse planted an ebony sapling to launch work at the Sapugaskande refinery, just outside the capital Colombo.
The four-year upgrade will triple Sri Lanka’s refinery capacity to 150,000 barrels per day from the current 50,000 barrels. Iran, which supplies 70 percent of Sri Lanka’s oil needs, has agreed to pay for 700-million-dollars of the upgrade, petroleum minister A.H.M. Fowzie said at the ceremony. He said it would make Sri Lanka self-sufficient in aviation fuel and tar.