NEW DELHI, June 24: As part of the Narendra Modi government’s outreach to neighbours, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj is leaving for Dhaka tomorrow on a three-day visit to Bangladesh during which she would discuss all bilateral issue, including the ratification of the land boundary government and the Teesta water imbroglio.
The visit is not a just goodwill visit but a substantive one, as the new government has to take a call on some of the pending issues, sources told UNI.
The External Affairs Ministry has already said that the visit was expected to provide further momentum to the close and friendly relationship between the two countries. However, one of the MEA’s proposals for visa-free entry for Bangladeshis is reported to have been shot down by the Home Ministry, though the Ministry had denied that that it had made any such proposal.
The existence of the proposal was first disclosed by Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi, who strongly opposed the move on grounds of security.
He had told reporters last week that his government had rejected the MEA-sponsored proposal to allow visa-free entry of Assam Bangladeshi nationals below 8 and above 65 years of age.
In wake of fresh reports that the Ministry had rejected the proposals, the MEA was contacted but no immediate comment was available.
Tomorrow’s visit of Ms Swaraj to Bangladesh is the first stand-alone visit abroad and was very important as the new government has to take a call on the pending issues. During the visit, the Sheikh Hasina government would expect some move by the new government over the land boundary agreement concluded during former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s visit to Dhaka in September 2011.
The previous government could not obtain ratification of the agreement by Parliament because of the reservations of the BJP which was then in the Opposition.
India in return wants Bangladesh to open the Tetulia corridor for better connectivity between Northeast and rest of India. This four-km corridor can reduce road travel to and from Northeast by over 85 km. India had already opened the Tinbigha corridor.
This is a strip of land belonging to India on the West Bengal-Bangladesh border, which in September, 2011, was leased to Bangladesh as it connects the country to its Dahagram-Angarpota enclaves.
The Sheikh Hasina government had addressed India’s concerns on some security concerns like checking insurgent activity against India sponsored from Bangladesh’s territory. During Dr Singh’s 2011 visit, the much-hyped Teesta water sharing agreement, too, could not be signed as West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee refused to accompany Prime Minister Narendra Modi to register her opposition to the agreement. The failure to see the agreement through and get the land boundary agreement ratified by Parliament had created scepticism in Dhaka about the political will of the previous government. However, with the Narendra Modi government enjoying an absolute majority in the Lok Sabha, the Hasina government might be expecting faster movement on these issues. Industry lobbies, meanwhile, are hoping that economic cooperation would get a boost with Ms Swaraj’s visit to Dhaka. They feel that India-Bangladesh trade had the potential to double to 10 billion dollars by 2018, provided trading irritants such as non-tariff barriers and infrastructure related issues were resolved.
(UNI)
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