Biden Didn’t Help Build Afghanistan’s Pipeline
The Claim
Biden helped build Afghanistan’s pipeline.
News posted on
Emerging story
On February 15th, a Facebook user posted an image stating “Biden cancels our pipeline but helps build afghanistans pipeline? Help me understand."
With more than 3.3K shares, this post quickly spread, receiving many negative reactions.
Misbar’s Analysis
The Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) Gas Pipeline Project began in the mid-1990s and was centered around exporting natural gas from Afghanistan to Pakistan and India. The entirety of the pipeline is intended to scale 214km and maintain a diameter of 56in. Although the Clinton, Obama, and Trump administrations have supported it, the U.S. has never invested any money in it.
A journalist at the Washington Examiner speculated that Biden’s administration is supporting the TAPI Pipeline while canceling development for the Keystone XL Pipeline. The State Department has denied this. The same article also refers to a meeting supposedly brokered by the US between Taliban officials and Turkmenistan, but provides little evidence to support this. A White House spokesperson stated, “The United States played no role in the Taliban's visit to Turkmenistan and has no position to share on those discussions.”
Misbar finds this claim to be false. Biden’s administration did not facilitate the construction of the TAPI pipeline.
