Staff Reporter :
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina will start her second historic four-day state visit to India on Friday, triggering high hopes among the people of Bangladesh.
The PM is going to Delhi at the invitation of her Indian counterpart Narendra Modi. This visit will take place more than 7 years after Hasina’s last visit to India in January 2010 and almost 2 years after Modi’s visit to Bangladesh in June 2015.
Hasina will hold official talks with Modi on April 8.
Different political parties, including Bangladesh Nationalist Party, warned that the people will not accept any deal against the country’s national interest.
BNP on Tuesday also demanded that the government make public before the Prime Minister’s India tour all the possible deals and MoUs to be signed with the neighbouring country. The government made its stand clear that no agreement contrary to the national interest will be signed and all deals will be made public.
Senior Ministers on Tuesday said Teesta Water Sharing Agreement might not be inked for now. It may be inked later, but a significant progress has been made to this end, they said, adding there is so much on the plate during the Prime Minister’s India visit.
Issues relating to the Teesta Water Sharing Agreement, the Ganges Barrage and killing of Bangladeshis along the border by the Indian Border Security Force will come up for discussion during the PM’s visit, diplomatic sources said.
Meanwhile, Bangladesh and India have taken necessary preparations to sign ‘more or less 33 deals and MoUs’ during Hasina’s April 7-10 visit, considered extremely important by both sides.
A five-year Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on defence cooperation and four other related documents are also there on the list of deals to be signed. Replying to a query on the possibility of any defence cooperation pact between the two countries, a diplomat told this reporter that there had been a significant cooperation and collaboration between the two countries in many ways in this particular area.
“There will be an opportunity to begin fresh talks over various issues. Besides further expanding the cordial and cooperative relationship between India and Bangladesh, the upcoming visit will strengthen the Dhaka-Delhi trust,” Foreign Minister AH Mahmood Ali told journalists at a press conference on Tuesday. When asked whether any defence deal will be signed with India, he said everybody will be able to see when it is done. “All will be made public,” he said, adding that Bangladesh will honour 1,661 Indian soldiers posthumously for their contribution during the 1971 Liberation War of Bangladesh.
AH Mahmood Ali said there are possibilities to sign 33 Memoranda of Understandings (MoUs) or agreements with India on various issues.
“The MoUs and deals may include Border Haat establishment, information and broadcasting, civil nuclear cooperation, science and technology, ICT, satellite and space research, geological science, defence cooperation, third Line of Credit (LoC), community clinic installation and cooperation on power sector,” he said.
Meanwhile, Road Transport and Bridges Minister Obaidul Quader on Tuesday said no agreement against the national interest as well as sovereignty will be signed during the visit.
“There is no bar to signing of any defence or civil deal if the national interest is protected,” he said.
“The Teesta deal may be inked later, but a significant progress has been made to this end. So, there is no chance of being frustrated as signing of the deal is a matter of time,” he said.
Meanwhile, when contacted Ainun Nishat, Professor Emeritus of BRAC University and Water Expert, said all technical discussion about the Teesta Water Sharing Agreement completed earlier.
“And now it is a political decision to implement the Teesta Water Sharing Agreement. Politicians of both the countries will have to come forward in this regard,” he said. When contacted Major General (Retd) Abdur Rashid, security analyst and Executive Director, Institute of Conflict, Law and Development Studies, said people will have to be informed that the signing of a defence cooperation deal does not mean formation of a military alliance.
Meanwhile, BNP’s senior leaders said Sheikh Hasina government’s relations with India have turned sour after the procurement of submarines from China by Bangladesh.
They urged the Prime Minister not to sign any anti-state deal with India during her upcoming visit to the neighbouring country.
