Trying, sincerely
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi yesterday reassured his Bangladesh counterpart Sheikh Hasina of signing the Teesta water-sharing deal and implementing the Land Boundary Agreement, saying his government was working sincerely on the issues.
“There had been reservations from a few political parties in India about signing the Teesta deal and implementing the Land Boundary Agreement. But problems have been overcome gradually. I hope we will be able to sign the water-sharing treaty soon,” the Indian PM was quoted as saying by Hasina's Media Adviser Iqbal Sobhan Chowdhury.
However, there was no timeframe for the signing or when implementation of the Land Boundary Agreement (LBA) will start.
Modi also informed Hasina that West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banarjee, who had opposed the signing of the Teesta treaty, now had no objection and that Mamata would come to Bangladesh with him at the time of striking the deal, Iqbal said.
The adviser was briefing the media following Hasina's four separate bilateral meetings with the heads of the government and state of India, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Nepal on the sidelines of the 18th Saarc summit in Kathmandu yesterday.
In the meetings, all the leaders stressed the need for stronger cooperation to combat militancy, alleviate poverty and make Saarc an effective body.
Hasina invited Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Nepal Prime Minister Sushil Koirala and Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to visit Bangladesh at their earliest convenient time.
Modi focused on boosting India-Bangladesh relations to resolve the many problems facing the two countries. He also emphasised that Bangladesh cooperated more in sharing intelligence over the recent Burdwan blasts with the Indian intelligence agencies, Iqbal Sobhan said.
Hasina told Modi that terrorism was the main obstacle to peace and development of the region.
Lives of people will improve greatly if terrorism was rooted out through cooperation among the Saarc members, she said.
In response, Modi said he agreed that the Saarc countries should work together to fight terrorism for peace and prosperity of the region.
At one stage of the 30-minute meet that started at 3:15pm local time, Modi said in Hindi that Bangladesh was a special country to him and stressed that Bangladesh and India should have a common goal for strengthening bilateral relations.
According to Modi, Saarc was not as effective a body as the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) and the European Union (EU) are and that cooperation was the key for the Saarc to be effective.
The Indian PM also sought Hasina's help for the UN to play more active roles in this region.
Hasina said they all would discuss it, Iqbal Sobhan said.
The Teesta deal was to be signed during former Indian PM Manmohan Singh's Dhaka visit in 2011. Both sides reportedly agreed to a 50-50 share of the water of the river that originates in the Indian state of Sikkim and runs through Paschimbanga and Bangladesh.
But it did not happen due to strong opposition from Mamata, who said the sharing formula accepted by the Indian central government harmed her state's interest. She even pulled out of Manmohan's entourage at the last moment, much to Manmohan's embarrassment.
As for the LBA, the Indian Parliamentary Standing Committee on External Affairs Ministry okayed the bill related to the agreement on Tuesday.
The committee, chaired by Congress lawmaker Shashi Tharoor, advised the central government to place the bill in parliament as soon as possible. The bill was sent to the committee for approval last year.
The boundary agreement is expected to resolve the decades-old disputes involving 3,000 acres of Bangladesh land inside India, 51 enclaves and 6.5km undemarcated border. Similarly, India has around 3,500 acres of land and 111 enclaves inside Bangladesh.
Indian enclaves inside Bangladesh are in Panchagarh, Lalmonirhat, Kurigram and Nilphamari, while all the Bangladesh enclaves are in the Indian district of Cooch Behar.
During the meeting with the Nepal PM, Hasina recalled the support of the Nepalese people for the 1971 Liberation War of Bangladesh, Iqbal said.
Koirala thanked Hasina for allowing Nepal to use the Mongla Port.
Hasina said she requested India to allow Nepal and Bhutan to use its corridor to enter Bangladesh.
The Nepalese PM invited Bangladeshi investment in his country in hydro-electricity projects.
The Afghan president wanted to know how Bangladesh curbed militancy, Iqbal said, adding that Hasina told the president that Bangladesh and her government had to take immense risks to wipe out the menace.
She said her government had adopted zero tolerance for militancy.
Pakistan PM Nawaz Sharif and Hasina exchanged pleasantries and congratulated each other on becoming prime minister for the third time.
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