Talking to journalists here after India, Bangladesh and Myanmar had agreed last Thursday to a trans-national pipeline project to ferry natural gas from Myanmar to India through Bangladesh, Indian Petroleum Minister Mani Shankar Aiyar said New Delhi "would favourably consider Dhaka's request for trade transit to Nepal and Bhutan".

On Dhaka's overture to Delhi seeking access to hydro-electricity of Nepal and Bhutan through Indian power grid in return for the Myanmar-Bangladesh-India pipeline, Aiyar said, "India would examine positively any fresh proposal received from Dhaka with regard to the required facilities."

Officials here said the understanding arrived at between the three countries in Yangon took note of Bangladesh's concerns on trade and electricity transit issues, which is reflected significantly in the joint statement issued there on Thursday.

The statement said, "The Governments of Bangladesh, India and Myanmar agree to continue keeping contact with each other at the Ministerial level and to meet both trilaterally and bilaterally at regular intervals in order to update each other on the measures being taken relating to the development of activities in their respective countries in regard to natural gas and, more generally, the power and energy sector."

It said, "With respect to issues of bilateral cooperation which impinge on their trilateral cooperation, such as hydroelectricity and other diversified sources of energy supply, trade and transit, the Ministers of the three countries agreed that such bilateral issues will continue to be pursued bilaterally."

"In this context, they [the three countries] agreed to recommend to their respective governments the importance of evaluating issues relevant to bringing their nations closer to each other by establishing policy frameworks which will augment practical measures for further economic cooperation and collaboration among themselves."

Talking to media people, Aiyar termed Dhaka's agreement to the trans-national pipeline a 'triumph'. "I think it is a triumph because for the first time in 30 years Bangladesh has agreed to its territory being used for transport of any commodity," Aiyar, who had attended the three-nation talks in Yangon, said.

He said the trilateral agreement constitutes a 'win-win' situation for all, because it involves not only ferrying gas from Myanmar to India but also a broader co-operation under which gas from Bangladesh's gas fields in Sylhet area could be carried for use in petrochemical industries in Khulna or Jessore.

The pipeline agreement came as a major shot in the arm of Aiyar's energy diplomacy blitz in less than a week after India signed a $40 billion deal with Iran to import 7.5 million tonnes of liquefied natural gas for 25 years beginning from 2009.