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India Backs China on Asian Counterpart to International Energy Agency

Posted on: Friday, 13 January 2006, 09:00 CST

Text of report by Indian news agency PTI

Beijing, 13 January: India on Friday [13 January] said it would support a Chinese suggestion for creating an Asian counterpart to the International Energy Agency to coordinate the long-term energy import policies of major oil importers in the region.

"India stands ready to participate in such an Asian counterpart to the International Energy Agency - but only in the cooperative spirit of the five principles of peaceful co-existence. We believe China would be of the same view," Indian Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas Mani Shankar Aiyar said here on Friday.

In his address to a select gathering of Chinese oil company officials and experts, Aiyar, now on a three-day official visit to China, noted that the Development Research Centre (DRC) of the State Council, China's cabinet, in a background paper, had suggested creating an Asian counterpart to the International Energy Agency through cooperation between China, India, Japan, South Korea and other nations.

Speaking on the subject "India and China in Asia's Quest for Energy Security", Aiyar thanked DRC for their "supportive reference" and pointed out that the January and November ministerial round tables hosted by India had proposed a kind of Asian counterpart to the International Energy Association, but a forum based on Panchsheel [five principles of peaceful co-existence agreed between India and China in 1954] rather than "attempting to divide Asia between buyers and sellers".

Source: BBC Monitoring South Asia

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