India rushes top diplomat to Bangladesh to stop it from moving closer to China

Foreign Secretary Harsh Shringla flew to Dhaka on Tuesday amid growing concerns in New Delhi over China’s bid to spread its tentacles over Bangladesh – one of the friendliest neighbours of India.

Shringla called on Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina during his visit to Dhaka. He handed over to her a special communique from Prime Minister Narendra Modi. He also called on Foreign Minister A K Abdul Momen, apart from holding a meeting with his counterpart Masud Bin Momen.

The two sides discussed “security related issues of mutual interests”, a source said after Shringla called on Hasina.

The issues discussed during Foreign Secretary’s meeting with Bangladesh Prime Minister included New Delhi’s support to the development projects in the neighbouring country, enhancing connectivity, revival of the economy after the Covid-19 crisis, cooperation on dealing with the pandemic, including on therapeutics and vaccine, sources said.

It was the Foreign Secretary’s first visit to a foreign capital after the outbreak of Covid-19 pandemic prompted the governments around the world to impose restrictions on international travels almost five months back. He flew from New Delhi to Dhaka onboard an Indian Air Force (IAF) aircraft. The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) in New Delhi officially announced the visit only after the Foreign Secretary landed in Dhaka. It said that he was on a two-day visit to Dhaka “to discuss and take forward cooperation on matters of mutual interest”.

Shringla was also the first foreign visitor whom Bangladesh Prime Minister met after the outbreak of the pandemic.

Hasina, according to the sources, appreciated Modi’s gesture of sending the top diplomat of the Government of India to Dhaka to touch base, convey the message and to see how the two sides could take relationship forward.

India’s top diplomat rushed to Bangladesh soon after reports from the neighbouring country indicated that Sheikh Hasina’s government asked for a $ 983.27 million soft loan from China to implement the Teesta River Comprehensive Management and Restoration project.

Teesta is a river which originates in Sikkim and flows through West Bengal in India before entering Bangladesh. A move by New Delhi and Dhaka to clinch a water sharing deal remained stalled for the past several years as West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee refrained from giving her consent, stating that such a pact would result water scarcity in the northern region of the state and hit hard the farmers.

Hasina Government recently also moved to award an airport expansion project in eastern Bangladesh to a state-owned company of China.

Bangladesh is the fourth South Asian country after Nepal, Sri Lanka and Maldives, which China is trying to win over – ostensibly to spread its geopolitical influence in the neighbourhood of India.

Even as its People’s Liberation Army (PLA) was engaged in a stand-off with the Indian Army along the disputed boundary between the two nations, China recently brought into effect a zero-tariff policy for 97% of its imports from Bangladesh, allowing the South Asian nation to export to the communist country an additional 5161 items without paying any customs duty.

Beijing is also understood to be in discussion with Dhaka for granting loans to the tune of $ 6.4 billion for several infrastructure projects across Bangladesh.