Saving in sequence programmatically over slow connection hangs MS Project

Question

I have noticed that when issuing FileSave and then FileSaveAs immediately after causes MS Project to hang without any error. The offending code is:

    Public Sub CleanXML(file As String)

        Dim oActiveApp As MSProject.Application = GetObject(, "MSProject.Application")

        oActiveApp.FileSave()
        oActiveApp.FileSaveAs(Name:=file, FormatID:="MSProject.XML")

        Try
            Dim xmlDoc As XElement = XElement.Load(file)

            Dim junk =
            From jk In xmlDoc.Elements
            Where jk.Name.LocalName = "Tasks"
            Select jk

            Dim children =
            From ch In junk.Elements
            Where ch.Descendants.ElementAt(3).Name.LocalName <> "Name"
            Select ch
            children.Remove

            xmlDoc.Save(file)

        Catch ex As System.Exception
            MessageBox.Show(ex.Message, "Error", MessageBoxButtons.OK, MessageBoxIcon.Error)
        End Try

    End Sub

But in reality, it never finishes executing FileSaveAs. I have noticed that if calling FileSaveAs first and then FileSave doesn't cause the same problem.

The open Project file is on the remote server (connection speed avg is 400Kbps) and the XML is saving on the machine locally. If the Project file is also local this doesn't happen.

Any idea what could be causing this issue?