Dhaka to press India for resolving Teesta deal

Dhaka: Bangladesh will seek “specific timeframe” from India to settle the Teesta water sharing and implement land boundary agreement in the upcoming foreign ministers’ level meeting in New Delhi.

The third Joint Consultative Commission (JCC) meeting to be held on September 20 will be the first after the Narendra Modi government took charge.

Dhaka sees the meeting as an opportunity to take the relations to “a new height”.

The meeting also assumes significance to Bangladesh as it will be the first visit of the Foreign Minister Abul Hassan Mahmood Ali to India.

The progress in bilateral cooperation in all areas including security, trade, connectivity, power, water resources, border management, infrastructure, people to people contacts, culture, environment, and education will be reviewed in the meeting.

A senior foreign ministry official said that security would top the priority of India while Bangladesh would place two specific proposals – river basin management and Bay of Bengal co-operation.

Bangladesh would also once again stress on no border killing by the Indian border force, an official, who preferred anonymity, said.

“But we’ll seek specific timeframe to settle the long pending issues (Teesta river water sharing and LBA),” he said.

The LBA is awaiting approval at the upper house of Indian parliament Rajya Sabha while Teesta water sharing treaty has been shelved after West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s resistance.
 

The official, who is close to the preparatory activities of the JCC, said they have a “very positive” impression about the new government in India.

“There have been many speculations (before Narendra Modi came to power). But the external affairs minister (during her visit) made it clear that they want to take the relations forward,” he said.

He particularly mentioned the letter Modi wrote to his counterpart Sheikh Hasina.

“It (the letter) was a really good gesture. If you read the letter, you will find how he wrote it in a planned way. It also reflects his (Modi) vision.”

“He deliberately wrote ‘we want to take the relations to a greater height’.”

India has also proposed to take secretaries of different ministries with the foreign minister during the visit.

The foreign ministry received the proposal and “a number of Secretaries” will accompany the minister.

“This is also a good idea to increase interactions at civil service level.”

Senior foreign ministry officials said that they do not find “any confidence deficit” with India at this moment, though there are pending issues.

“We enjoy good collaboration with India even at international level that has never happened before,” one senior official said.