India-Bangladesh to sign defence agreement

India and Bangladesh are likely to sign an umbrella agreement on defence cooperation during Bangladesh prime minister Sheikh Hasina’s upcoming visit in early April. The umbrella agreement would pave way for India to enhance its military cooperation with the eastern neighbour, where China wields considerable influence.

The pact, defence ministry sources told DH, would not immediately result in bilateral projects or joint exercises. Rather it would lay the foundation on which such projects can be executed. It would also increase the interaction between the two militaries. Sheikh Hasina will visit India between April 7 and 10. She will hold official talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on April 8.

Her last visit to India was in January 2010; Modi had visited Bangladesh in June 2015. In the absence of any breakthrough on the Teesta water-sharing agreement between the two nations, the defence cooperation agreement could be one of the big outcomes of the visit.

In October 2016, the then defence minister Manohar Parrikar travelled to Dhaka to finalise the contours of the defence cooperation agreement. Since 2002, Bangladesh has had an umbrella agreement with China, which was inked during the regime of Begum Khaleda Zia.