UNB, New Delhi :
Defence cooperation between Bangladesh and India will certainly be ‘one of the outcomes’ of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s visit while Bangladesh will need to wait a bit with ‘some patience’ on the much-desired Teesta water sharing deal that remains pending for a long time.
“Certainly, defence cooperation would be one of the outcomes of the visit,” Indian Foreign Secretary Dr Subrahmanyam Jaishankar told a visiting Bangladesh media delegation at the Ministry of External Affairs here on Thursday evening.
Asked about any pleasant surprises, the Indian Foreign Secretary said he does not want to mislead anybody if the question relates to Teesta issue.
He made it clear that he does not have anything right now that makes him believe that ‘something dramatic’ will happen over the next two days. “It’s my honest assessment.”
The Foreign Secretary, however, said the Indian central government’s view remains positive on Teesta but they need to take all on board.
Diplomatic sources in Dhaka and New Delhi indicated that the Teesta water sharing deal might be signed well ahead of next national election in Bangladesh that is scheduled to take place in 2019. Former Indian High Commissioner in Dhaka Pinak R Chakravarty said he sees high expectation on Teesta issue from Bangladesh side ‘positively’. “But let’s agree we won’t allow one issue to dominate the every other issues we have.”
He has an understanding that it will be a big mistake if the visit is judged with whether Teesta is signed or not.
Responding to a question on defence cooperation opposed by BNP in Bangladesh, Chakravarty, Distinguished Fellow of Indian Think Tank Observer Research Foundation, said, “My own sense is that this is that residual mentality. I’m hundred percent sure, having known Bangladesh and having so many friends in Bangladesh, that there’s a lobby at work there.”
He said one should not worry too much about it and mentioned, “I don’t want to have named that lobby. You all know that. So that lobby is agitating because that lobby has something to lose.”
In any case defence cooperation with India cannot compete with China, said he adding that about 82 to 85 percent of Bangladesh’s defence equipment come from China. “India doesn’t have much to do about that. But in any other way, cooperation should be there”.
On the defence cooperation, Indian Foreign Secretary Jaishankar said India maintains defence coopeartion with Sri Lanka, Maldives, Bhutan, Nepal, Myanmar and Afghanistan. “Why don’t we have with Bangladesh?”
Terming the visit as ‘most important’ incoming visit this year in India, he said it will raise the level of two countries relations to new height as the relations have already shown ‘great progress’.
He said there are issues of mutual sensitivity and there is a degree of give and take which will be expanded further.
Responding to a question on new line of credit, the Foreign Secretary said it will be somewhere between US$ 4 billion to US$ 5 billion.
Terming the current Bangladesh government as a very good partner, Jaishankar said they are looking for ‘broader sense of strategy’ in the relations in the coming days.
Foreign Minister AH Mahmood Ali said the two sides expect to sign over 30 agreements and memoranda of understanding in such key areas as cyber security, technology, nuclear power, science and defence.
India’s official spokesperson Gopal Bagley said India is giving a ‘lot of importance’ to the visit, which he said would ‘pave the way for greater friendship between the two countries’.
Bangladesh and India have a ‘very flourishing cooperation’ in security and intelligence so it is only natural it should extend to the domain of defence, said former Indian High Commissioner Chakravarty.
India’s Minister for Railways Suresh Prabhu said he feels ‘strongly’ for Bangladesh and India is eagerly waiting to receive Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. “We’re more than neighours. We’re two countries with a lot of shared interest,” he said.
Meanwhile, Indian capital city New Delhi is ready to welcome Hasina and key intersections are decorated with national flags of Bangladesh and India.
Hasina and her Indian counterpart Narendra Modi’s photos are also seen in some points.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina arrives here on Friday morning on for a four-day visit which will, both sides say, yield ‘satisfying’ outcomes.
Indian Minister of State, Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises Babul Supriyo and Bangladesh High Commissioner in New Delhi Syed Muazzem Ali will receive her at Air Force Station, Palam, New Delhi, according to her tentative schedule.
She will be staying at Rastrapati Bhaban as a guest of Indian President Pranab Mukherjee.
The Prime Minister, according to Foreign Ministry here, will hold official talks with her Indian counterpart Narendra Modi in New Delhi on April 8.
This visit comes seven years after Sheikh Hasina’s previous visit to India in January 2010 and almost two years after Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s maiden visit to Bangladesh in June 2015.
The two countries, during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit, had indicated a desire to make the relations multidimensional through unveiling a joint declaration ‘Notun Projonmo – Nayi Disha’.
