YEVA HARUTYUNYAN
has been US $ 600 million up to now . Within that sum , about US $ 260 million was for technical assistance towards capacity building . 14 ODA ' s loans were mostly used for developing the infrastructures of the states of Central Asia like roads , modernization of airports , railways , fiber lines , bridges , power plants , vocational schools , installation and canalization system . 15
In the beginning Japan ’ s economic interests in Central Asia were based on conducting a feasibility study for developing oil and gas transportation system which would connect Central Asia with Eurasia and would construct oil and gas pipelines from the region up to Japan . Due to Japan ’ s investments in the development of oil and gas spheres were supposed to support these states to overcome economic difficulties and facilitate integration processes in the region .
One of the first projects was the construction of Trans-Asia Gas Pipeline which supposed to link Turkmenistan to Japan through the Tarim Basin ( China ) up to South Korea . 16 This project has been referred to as the “ Energy Silk Road Project ” and should be 8000 km long . 17 However , high cost of this project ( about US $ 9 billion ) and the distance made Japan suspend the construction works . Later this project was realized by China and for the first time in 2009 the Turkmen gas was supplied to China through this pipeline . 18
Japan is supporting also the construction of Turkmenistan- Afghanistan-Pakistan-India ( TAPI ) pipeline , which will stretch from the Turkmen giant Galkynysh field ( known as South Yolotan-Osman ) to Fazilka on the Indo-Pakistan border . The length of pipeline is calculated
14
Mirzokhid Rakhimov , “ Central Asia and Japan : Bilateral and Multilateral Relations ,” Journal of Eurasian Studies 5 , Issue 1 ( January 2014 ): 79 , https :// www . sciencedirect . com / science / article / pii / S1879366513000328 # fn1 ( accessed August 11 , 2020 ).
15
“ Focus on the Central Asia , The New Silk Road ,” Website of Japan International Cooperation Agency ( JICA ), January 2013 , https :// www . jica . go . jp / english / news / focus _ on / central _ asia2013 / central _ asia _ 01 . html ( accessed August 11 , 2020 ).
16
Standing J ., Stroth S ., “ Exxon , Others to Study Asian Pipeline Project ,” The Houston Chronicle , August 23 , 1995 , 1 .
17
Kuen-Wook Paik , Gas and Oil in Northeast Asia ( London : Royal Institute of International Affairs , 1995 ), 186 ; Sergey S . Zhiltsov , Igor S . Zonn , Andrey G . Kostianoy , Oil and Gas Pipelines in the Black-Caspian Seas Region ( Switzerland , 2016 ), 111 .
18
Zhiltsov , Oil and Gas , 112 . 30