Bangladesh once again gets India’s assurance on Teesta water share

India has once again assured Bangladesh of concluding the pending Teesta water-sharing deal.

External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj during the Joint Consultative Commission (JCC) meeting assured that “they would work for early conclusion of Teesta water sharing agreement”.

Earlier, her Bangladesh counterpart AK Abdul Momen asked India to share water of all common rivers and for an early resolution of the Teesta water-sharing, the Bangladesh High Commission in New Delhi said after the meeting on Friday.

The Teesta water deal has remained pending since September 2011 when West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee embarrassed the then prime minister Manmohan Singh by pulling out of his delegation to Bangladesh, forcing India to drop it from the agenda.

Since then the Indian government has been assuring Bangladesh of concluding the agreement "as soon as possible".

Foreign Minister Momen also sought India’s cooperation for early repatriation of the Rohingya refugees to Myanmar .

He said economic diplomacy is emerging as a foreign policy priority for Bangladesh.

He noted that resource mobilisation for achieving the SDGs and the importance of South South and triangular cooperation for developing countries, where India could play a crucial role.

Photo via Twitter account of Raveesh Kumar, spokesperson for India's Ministry of External Affairs

Following the talks, the two ministers witnessed the signing of four MoUs related to training of Bangladesh mid-career civil servants in India, on cooperation on medicinal plants, anti-corruption issues and for facilitating investments in the Indian Economic Zone in Mongla.

A joint press statement was also issued after the talks.

Momen will come back to Dhaka on Saturday afternoon after ending his three-day visit, his first to any country after taking his office.