New opportunities for India-Bangladesh cooperation
On the evening of September 18, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina held video conferences in Delhi and Dhaka respectively. The leaders of the two countries agreed to build an "India-Bangladesh Friendship Pipeline" between the Siliguri region of West Bengal in India and the Parbatipur region of Dinajpur in Bangladesh—the third and fourth double-gauge railways will also be built between Dhaka and Tongi and between Tongi and Joydebpur in Bangladesh. Through this move, the two countries will further strengthen their ties, speed up the pace of contact in the Bay of Bengal region, and promote closer ties between the surrounding areas.
In a video conference, Modi described the current relationship between India and Bangladesh as similar to one between two members of the same family. Hasina, on the other hand, expressed the hope that India would continue to support the achievement of Bangladesh's development goals. It is undeniable that over the past few years, India and Bangladesh have made unprecedented progress both in the settlement of border issues and in the promotion of bilateral projects. And the two countries have a strong will to enhance the level of cooperation and promote bilateral common development. Although the two countries now face new situations, new tasks and new requirements in terms of cooperation, this is a new historic opportunity as well. This is mainly because both countries have placed each other in a strategic position.
From India's point of view, the "eastward movement" and peripheral diplomacy are key points of the foreign policy of the Modi government, and strengthening cooperation with Bangladesh and other countries bordering India's eastern region and promoting the economic development of India's northeastern region are the established strategies of India. Judging from this meeting, Modi has affirmed the results of cooperation between the two countries, saying that "when the two neighbouring countries work together, everything can be achieved." This is in line with India's approach during the fourth summit of the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC)—that is, to strengthen ties with neighbouring countries through multilateral and bilateral cooperation; to change the geographical and transportation conditions in the eastern and northeastern regions of India; to make them become the centres of regional and sub-regional cooperation; to change the underdeveloped face of the northeastern region of India; and to achieve the development goals of the region.
At the same time, India hopes to use this move to strengthen relations with Bangladesh and other neighbouring countries, change India's passive position in peripheral diplomacy over the past few years, and reduce nationalist tendencies toward India in neighbouring countries—and then improve India's external development conditions, expand diplomatic space, enhance India's influence in the internal and diplomatic affairs of neighbouring countries, reshape the peripheral geopolitics, and promote India's peripheral diplomacy from the dominant type of the past to a more reasonable and more acceptable one.
Bangladesh also wishes to strengthen its cooperation with India. On the issue of regional governance, Bangladesh hopes that India will play a greater role in the Rohingya refugee issue. On the one hand, it calls on India to exert pressure on Myanmar to reduce the spillover of Burmese Rohingya refugees and, at the same time, to allow as many refugees as possible from Bangladesh to return to Myanmar. On the other hand, India was asked to take on more responsibility in accepting the Rohingya refugees, that is, to increase its assistance to the Rohingya refugees. Moreover, Bangladesh cannot achieve its development goals without India. The construction of pipelines and railway infrastructure will not only solve the oil and gas bottlenecks that restrict Bangladesh's development, but will also improve the conditions for its development.
As things stand now, promoting connectivity and cooperation in the field of energy is a priority. From the perspective of connectivity, India and Bangladesh have long been constrained by poor infrastructure links between the two countries; the status quo is expected to be improved. In addition to building pipelines and railways, in March of this year, India and Bangladesh agreed on dredging inland waterways and docking waterways; building a railway bridge on the India-Bangladesh border; and opening a new railway line between the two countries. And in order to facilitate the movement of people and goods between the two countries, land customs posts in border areas will also be upgraded to integrated checkpoints. In the area of energy, India has helped Bangladesh to settle the shortage of energy issue. What's more, India plans to set up a natural gas supply centre in Jessore and an LPG terminal at Kutubdia in Bangladesh. The two countries are also exploring ways to strengthen cooperation in clean and renewable energy.
Cooperation between India and Bangladesh is not limited to bilateral issues only, but can also be seen in the framework of regional cooperation as a whole. With the strengthening of cooperation among China, ASEAN and India, Bangladesh's position in regional cooperation will be greatly enhanced as an important link between East Asia, Southeast Asia and South Asia. It is also bound to promote the continued deepening of bilateral relations between India and Bangladesh.
Huang Dekai, Zhu Like and Wang Yao are development researchers based in China.