India on Wednesday said 'it was unfazed' by the United States' opposition to the Iran-Pakistan-India pipeline, adding it will continue to pursue gas imports from Iran to meet its energy requirements.
"I am unfazed specially because my friend and Cambridge college mate, Pakistani Foreign Minister Khurshid Mehmood Kasuri had given a befitting reply (to US opposition) in Washington," Petroleum Minister Mani Shankar Aiyar told PTI in New Delhi.
US Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice is reported to have warned Pakistan of sanctions if it continued to pursue the proposed pipeline project to meet its energy demands.
"So long as India, Pakistan and Iran hang together, there is every assurance of energy needs of India and Pakistan being met on the basis of remunerative returns for Iran and affordable price for India and Pakistan," Kasuri said.
Kasuri is reported to have told Rice that Islamabad was pursuing the pipeline as Pakistan would become an energy deficit country by 2009-10.
Aiyar said India today needs 100 million standard cubic mt per day of gas and imports from countries in the neighbourhood like Iran were the only economic and sustainable source for meeting the need of the fast growing economy.