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Turkmenistan hopes to quickly build stronger economic ties to Afghanistan now that it has fallen into the hands of the Taliban, with authorities in China, Russia and Pakistan providing political support for the country’s new leadership.

Taliban spokesperson Suhail Shaheen highlighted the Turkmenistan – Afghanistan – Pakistan – India (Tapi) gas pipeline and a proposed rail connection between the two countries as “long-term priority projects which will begin soon”.

During their visit to the Turkmen capital of Ashgabat earlier this year, Local reports confirmed that, Taliban representatives had also discussed a third project, to build an electricity export line from Turkmenistan via Afghanistan to Pakistan.

“Afghanistan is a bridge between Central Asia and South Asia and the new government will work to enable connectivity” between these regions.

“Our goal is to provide prosperity to our people,” he concluded.

The Tapi pipeline is strongly promoted by Turkmenistan as a solution to diversify its export routes and remove the cap on its natural gas production. The pipeline is proposed to carry 33 billion cubic metres of gas from the Galkynysh group of prolific fields in the south-east of the country.

Of the approximate 1840 kilometres total length, some 1600 kilometres of the Tapi pipeline will be laid in Afghanistan and Pakistan, with the route terminating at the town of Fazilka in India near its land border with Pakistan.

Turkmenistan has already built the short segment of the pipeline within its territory to its border with Afghanistan, and currently delivers the bulk of its gas production to China via an export infrastructure across Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan, comprising three lines, with some shipments going to Russian gas monopoly Gazprom via an old Soviet-era route across Kazakhstan.

The route to China is understood to have been running at a maximum capacity before the coronavirus-related slowdown in demand, preventing Turkmenistan from increasing gas production at Galkynysh — one of the largest global gas discoveries — while Gazprom prohibits Turkmenistan from transiting its gas to Ukraine and the rest of Europe.