On December 11 in Ashgabat, the top officials of four participant countries signed agreements on a Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) gas pipeline project, favored on and off (currently on again) by the US government. Presidents Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov of Turkmenistan, Afghanistan’s Hamid Karzai, and Pakistan’s Asif Ali Zardari, along with India’s Petroleum Minister, Murli Deora, signed an inter-governmental agreement (IGA) on the project; while the ministerial-level officials of the four countries signed a gas pipeline framework agreement (GPFA). The IGA is said to include a legal framework as well as issues of physical security for the project, while the GPFA covers largely technical issues.