A high ranking Japanese official says his country is interested in helping to build an oil pipeline from Turkmenistan through Afghanistan, to Pakistan.
Speaking in Ashgabat, the Turkmen capital, the Japanese diplomat, Deputy Foreign Minister Seiken Sugiura, said Japan is interested in cooperating on the more than 14-hundred kilometer pipeline project. Japan is dependent on oil from the middle east and officials have said they would like to develop alternative sources of supply.
The pipeline project, which was first discussed five-years ago, has been revived since the Taleban was driven from power in Afghanistan last year.