DHAKA, 4 April 2005 — Bangladesh has refused to host a meeting on April 20-21 for signing a memorandum of understanding on the proposed tri-nation gas pipeline from Myanmar to India through Bangladesh.
Bangladesh said it is not yet ready for the meeting as the three pre-conditions put to New Delhi still remain to be met.
Dhaka wants Delhi to provide transit facilities to import hydroelectricity from Nepal and Bhutan, give scope for Bangladesh to trade with the two countries and reduce trade imbalance between Bangladesh and India. Dhaka is, however, yet to make full preparations for negotiations on the conditions.
Dhaka will inform Yangon of its decision within a day or two, said sources in the Energy and Mineral Resources Division in the Bangladesh capital yesterday.
The state minister for energy and mineral resources, A.K.M. Mosharraf Hossain, on Sunday asked the Bangladesh ambassador to Myanmar, A.B. Manzoor Rahim, to inform Yangon that Dhaka needed more time before signing the MOU, the sources added.
Rahim, who is now in Dhaka on leave and is expected to rejoin his post in Yangon in a day or two, met Mosharraf for a briefing on Myanmar’s proposal for a meeting on April 20-21 to sign the memorandum.
The director general of the Myanmar Energy Ministry, Soe Myint, in a letter on Thursday informed Dhaka that Yangon had finalized the draft of the memorandum, prepared by a working committee of experts from the three countries in February. Mosharraf told newsmen yesterday that he had briefed Rahim about Dhaka’s position on the proposal. “The government will send a reply to Yangon within a day or two, requesting that the date for signing the MOU be deferred,” he said.
The Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry sent the draft of the memorandum to the Prime Minister’s Office about a month ago along with the recommendation that foreign and commerce ministries and the power division should work together to prepare a formal proposal on the conditions. The PMO then sent a query to the division that how Dhaka’s interest would be secured in the memorandum.
