The meeting between the Prime Ministers of Bangladesh and India left one issue dangling on the ropes between disputed territory and no-mans’ land. The two governments agreed to post-pone till later any discussion of water sharing of the Teesta River. Today, the Bangladesh High Commissioner to India, Tari Ahmed Karim, said those talks on the finalized water sharing deal would most likely take place in March 2010.
Citing the Awami League goverment’s desire to have an interim deal the High Commissioner claimed a deal can be reached if both countries agree to hash something out that is mutually agreeable. In effect, High Commissioner Karim was blaming India for the state of affairs that the BNP claims is eroding Bangladesh’s sovereignty. Both Bangladesh and India contest resource rich land and water-ways. A disagreement over a stretch of the Bay of Bengal has made its way to teh United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.
Neither government has tried to broker some kind of an agreement with its neighbors on water sharing since 1996 when the Ganges Water Treaty entered into the books and struck a bargain between the two neighbors one equitable use of the river. But Karim claimed that the Prime Minister level meetings were a new day on the prospects of bilateral cooperation.
The Daily Star reports that, Karim said of the agreemtns “What we have got not only met our expectation but exceeded our expectation.”
The Daily Star further reports that “Asked to explain what he meant by “exceeded expectation”, he said Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has doubled India’s Line of Credit from $500 million without Bangladesh ever bargaining for it.”
“The Indian prime minister realised that the economic development of Bangladesh is in favour of India’s strategic interests. He recalled late Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi’s remark in mid-1980s about the need for an economically strong and stable Bangladesh.”
This ringing endorsement for greater mutual cooperation for mutual benefit is a promising sign for the future development of Bangladeshi infrastructure and assets. Foreign investors would do well to think about investing in Bangladesh now in order to catch the rising tide on its way up.