Dhaka wants timeframe to resolve Teesta, LBA issues

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 Sept 20 will be the first after the regime change in Delhi.

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 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 told bdnews24.com 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 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.

No confidence deficit

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 Indian Prime Minister Modi wrote to his counterpart Sheikh Hasina that External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj handed over during her June visit.

“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."

At least two senior foreign ministry officials told bdnews24.com 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.

“And it all happened in 2010 and 2011,” he said, “those two years have been the ‘ice-breaking’ years in India- Bangladesh relations."

“Now we are assured by the new external affairs minister that they will build upon the momentum of the relations."

“We crossed the ‘mistrust era’ in our relations two or three years back,” he said.

The foreign ministry also believes Modi will come to Dhaka any time, if at least one of the two much-talked-about issues was settled.

“We hope he (Modi) will visit Dhaka by this year."

Citing some examples of few ‘positive’ gestures from India, a senior official said they were sceptical whether India would join the ‘Blue Economy’ conference held on Sept 1 and Sept 2 as Bangladesh settled the maritime issue with them through international arbitration.

“But we got a strong representative from India,” he said.

“They also sent a delegation to the international conference on migration, though it was a contentious issue for them (India)."

He said their confidence also received a boost when they received backing for a Dhaka proposal to include water management in the post-MDG goals.

The proposed goal ‘number six’ of the sustainable development goal (SDG) envisages “ensuring availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all”.

Under this goal, there is a provision to implement by 2030 “integrated water resources management at all levels, including through trans-boundary cooperation as appropriate”.

“This gives us a big confidence,” he said, “It means India is also positive in solving water sharing issues.”

Delhi also put Joint River Commission (JRC) meeting issue in the agenda and Dhaka expects it will be held following the JCC.

The last JCC was held in Dhaka in February last year.