Welcome progress in Delhi, Dhaka ties

Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s ongoing State visit to India has been productive with the two sides signing pacts for cooperation in water sharing, trade, connectivity, space, railway infrastructure, and science and technology. The agreement on sharing the waters of River Kushiyara is significant. This is the first river water-sharing pact that the two sides have signed since the 1996 agreement on the Farakka waters.

The Kushiyara pact will benefit people living in southern Assam and Bangladesh’s Sylhet division. India and Bangladesh have also agreed to enter into a Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) and to that end will begin talks soon. Bangladesh is India’s largest trade partner in South Asia and bilateral trade has doubled over the last five years. Bangladesh has witnessed significant economic development in recent years and is poised to graduate from least developed country status in 2026. Dhaka and Delhi will aim to complete CEPA talks by then.

Relations between India and Bangladesh have been strong, especially with Hasina’s Awami League in power over the past decade. Her government has been sensitive to India’s security concerns and has acted robustly to tackle Islamist extremism and anti-India militant groups taking shelter in Bangladesh.

And though Bangladesh is part of the Belt and Road Initiative and draws on Chinese expertise and investment for infrastructure building, it has been careful to avoid excessive dependence on Beijing by involving a range of countries, including India, Japan and South Korea. It has also kept China out of projects like the Sonadia deep-sea project that was of concern to India. Hasina has been criticised at home for being sensitive to Indian concerns, especially when India has not reciprocated.

An agreement on the sharing of the Teesta’s waters remains elusive. While the text of the agreement has been ready since 2011, the political will to sign it has been lacking in India. West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has allowed domestic politics and hostility toward the Narendra Modi government to determine her position on the signing of the agreement. Hasina has the Kushiyara pact to hold up as an achievement of her Delhi visit. But in the absence of a done deal on the Teesta, this could amount to little, especially as her party will face general elections in a year. Worse, Indian ministers have also repeatedly insulted Bangladeshis. Home Minister Amit Shah has in the past referred to Bangladeshi migrants as termites. Even as Hasina was shaking hands with Modi in Delhi, Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sharma made a controversial comment on India “integrating Bangladesh” as part of ‘Akhand Bharat’. This is not how New Delhi should be treating a close friend.