THE resignation of the Bangladeshi Minister for Energy, Mr A.K.M. Mosharraf Hossain, would not affect a proposed natural gas pipeline project which also involved Myanmar and India, an official at the Bangladesh embassy said last week.

The first secretary at the embassy, Mr Mohamed Eusef Ali, told Myanmar Times on June 21 that Dhaka had promptly replaced Mr Hossain, who headed his country’s negotiations on the pipeline project and no problems would arise from the resignation.

A Bangladeshi newspaper, the Financial Express, reported on June 21 that Mr Hossain resigned on June 18 for personal reasons and was replaced by the chairman of Board of Investment, Mr Mahmudur Rahman.

Mr Hossain and his Myanmar and Indian counterparts, Brigadier-General Lun Thi and Mr Mani Shankar Aiyar, agreed in principle in January to build the pipeline, to carry natural gas from a field off Rakhine State to India via Bangladesh.

A memorandum of understanding was drafted in February by a technical committee comprising officials from the three countries and was due to have been signed in late March.

However, the signing of the MoU was delayed pending the outcome of negotiations between Dhaka and New Delhi on conditions sought by Bangladesh to allow the pipeline to pass through its territory.