Islamabad/Dhaka: Pakistan has denied the use of its airspace to a Russian cargo flight carrying a uranium shipment for Bangladesh’s Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant.
This comes days after Pakistan prime minister Shehbaz Sharif met his Bangladesh counterpart Tarique Rahman on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York and discussed enhanced ties between the two countries.
This denial has delayed delivery of the uranium that was scheduled to reach Bangladesh on September 24. While Dhaka confirmed that the shipment could not reach the country as planned, Pakistan played down the matter, citing technical and procedural issues.
The flight carrying uranium for the Rooppur plant was scheduled to arrive on September 24 but not given permission to use Pakistani airspace, Bangladesh’s minister for science and technology Faqir Mahbub Anam told ANI.
Russia had proposed a new date for the shipment, with the uranium expected to reach Bangladesh in the first week of October, he said.
The Pakistan high commission in Dhaka, in a clarification released on Tuesday, said Islamabad follows established procedures for requests involving diplomatic flights and overflight clearances.
“Islamabad maintains an unwavering commitment to international diplomatic norms and processes all requests for diplomatic flight and overflight clearances within a standardised, predictable timeframe, strictly in accordance with our established regulatory guidelines and civil aviation protocols,” it said.
The matter appeared to concern “technical and procedural arrangements” related to flight routing and airspace permissions, it said.
“With regard to the reports being quoted, the matter appears to relate to technical and procedural arrangements concerning flight routing and airspace permissions, which can occasionally require coordination among the relevant aviation and other authorities and may result in adjustments to flight schedules,” it added.
The Pakistani mission also stressed the importance it attaches to its relations with Bangladesh and urged that the issue be viewed only in a technical context, calling for no “undue significance” to be attached to reports or narratives that could seek to undermine bilateral relations.
The uranium shipment was the first batch of nuclear fuel for Unit-2 of the Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant. An official, speaking to The Daily Star on condition of anonymity, said the cargo flight was scheduled to fly over Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Pakistan and India before entering Bangladesh.
Fuel shipments for the second unit would resume in October using an alternative route, representatives of Rosatom’s public relations agency told the Bangladesh newspaper.
“The remaining fuel batches bound for Bangladesh will arrive by December across seven separate cargo flights,” the spokesperson said.
Rooppur is Bangladesh’s first nuclear power facility and is being constructed with support from Russia’s State Atomic Energy Corporation, Rosatom.
The nuclear facility is located on the bank of the Padma River in Pakshi Union, Ishwardi Upazila, in Bangladesh’s Pabna district. It is being built under the oversight of the Bangladesh Atomic Energy Commission, with technical assistance from Rosatom.
The plant consists of two third-generation VVER-1200 reactor units. Together, the two reactors are expected to generate 2,400 megawatts of baseload electricity.
Nuclear fuel deliveries for Unit-1 were completed in 2023.