KALADAN NEWS
Dated: Monday,
January 17, 2005
Tri-nations Pipeline Issue:
Trilateral Sign Depend on Bilateral Treaty
Chittagong,
Jan-07: Bilateral treaty
between Bangladesh and India become obstacles for recent agreement on
trilateral MoU in Rangoon, Burma.
On 15th January 2005, the Bangladesh State
Minister for Energy and Mineral Resources, AKM Mosharraf
Hossain said on his return from the tri-nations
energy meeting in Rangoon,
“Without following the bilateral treaty, we will not sign the trilateral one.”
Dhaka and Delhi
are expected to ink a bilateral agreement, granting Bangladesh
access to the low-cost hydroelectricity of Nepal
and Bhutan
using India’s
power grid and a trade corridor to the Himalayan Kingdoms through Indian
Territory.
Regarding to Bangladesh
request for the provision of electricity facilities from Nepal
and Bhutan
to Bangladesh,
the Indian minister agreed that the
Government of India would examine positively, the fresh proposals received
from Bangladesh
However, the three countries---Burma,
Bangladesh
and India---
agreed to co-operate in gas exploration and the transnational gas pipeline in
the meeting that held from 12-13 January 2005 in Rangoon.
Rangoon,
Dhaka and New
Delhi are set to sign a transnational deal
by April 2005 on an overland pipeline project involving an international
private sector consortium to transmit Burmese gas through Bangladesh
to India.
Bangladesh
will not invest in it. Each country will be responsible for the security of the
pipeline on its soil, said Mosharraf Hossain.
As an outcome of the Rangoon
meeting, the minister said, a six member working committee---with two
representatives of each country---headed by the director general of Burma
energy ministry has been formed. This committee will hold meetings in all the
three countries to determine the pipeline route and deal with the ownership and
technical issues. It will prepare and submit a report by March 2005, so that
the tripartite agreement can be signed by April 2005.
The cabinet of each of the three
countries will have to improve its portions of the pipeline scheme to give it
to go-ahead. ##
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