Afghanistan's president and Pakistan's prime minister launched a 1,814 kilometer (1,130 mile) gas pipeline on Friday that will feed Turkmenistan gas to Afghanistan, as well as Pakistan and eventually to India. Heavy security will guard the pipeline construction through war-weary Afghanistan, said Jelani Farhad, spokesman for the Herat provincial governor's office. The United States has advocated the pipeline as a source of much needed gas to all three countries over an alternative pipeline, which is also being negotiated, bringing gas from Iran through Pakistan and into India. The TAPI pipeline is a rare show of cooperation between often hostile neighbors Pakistan and India as well as the often contentious neighbors Pakistan and Afghanistan. The pipeline will have a capacity to carry 33 billion cubic meters (43 billion cubic yards) of gas from Turkmenistan to Pakistan and India through Afghanistan's Herat, Farah, Helmand and Nimroz provinces.

Source: ABC News February 23, 2018 07:28 UTC