Sunday, August 19, 2007

Indo-Bangladesh Relations

Indo-Bangladesh Relations:
by Dr. Anand Kumar

India which has been making effort to improve relationship with its neighbours in the spirit of SAARC, now wanted to bring a �positive uptrend� in its bilateral relationship with Bangladesh. This intention of India was shown during the last SAARC summit, when it unilaterally decided to give certain benefits to the Least Developed Countries (LDCs) of the region. Bangladesh was one of the obvious beneficiaries of this decision. Otherwise also, India wanted to put its relationship with Bangladesh on a strong footing. This was not possible without dealing with some of the issues which have acted as major irritants in the bilateral relationships. To remove these irritants and to give a positive thrust to bilateral relations, Indian foreign secretary, Shiva Shankar Menon visited Bangladesh from June 24 to June 26, 2007. Another main objective of the visit was to gauge the change in political situation after the postponement of January 22 elections.

India and Bangladesh had agreed to hold secretary-level talks annually, but flagging Dhaka-New Delhi relations turned the meetings into a biennial affair, held alternately in Dhaka in 2003 and in New Delhi in 2005. However, Bangladesh Foreign Adviser Iftekhar Ahmed Chowdhury and Indian Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee during their meeting in April on the sidelines of the SAARC summit in New Delhi promised regular secretary-level talks as part of a "new upward trajectory" in Dhaka-New Delhi relations. The recent meeting between Bangladesh Acting Foreign Secretary Touhid Hossain and Indian Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon was result of this.

India has been very clear in its approach towards the military backed caretaker government of Bangladesh headed by Fakharuddin Ahmed. This government displayed friendly attitude towards India unlike some of the previous governments that tried to capitalize by creating anti-India feeling among the Bangladeshi people. In contrast, certain steps taken by the caretaker government have arrested the continuous decline in Indo-Bangladesh relations. Though this government has put democracy on hold, so far it has not tried to throttle it. In fact, the steps taken by it appear to be taken with the intention to strengthen democracy in Bangladesh by purging the system of some of the evil practices which mainstream political parties have adopted since the restoration of democracy in 1990.

Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had promised during the 14th SAARC Summit that India would accommodate duty-free access of products of the LDCs in the SAARC region, including Bangladesh, by December 2007. India now wanted to put into practice this promise. Bangladesh has been claiming for a long time that its exports to India were suffering because of non-tariff and para-tariff barriers. To remove these alleged �non-tariff barriers� Dhaka and New Delhi signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to standardise their quality controls for certification, testing, measurement and quality assurance systems. Representatives from the Bangladesh Standards and Testing Institution (BSTI) and an Indian External Affairs Ministry official representing the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) signed the MoU. This step is likely to satisfy a long-pending demand of Bangladesh which thinks that it will help the country to expand its market in India.

Bangladesh has also demanded the removal of para-tariff barriers, which it claims raises the price of Bangladeshi exports in India due to Indian customs surcharges, additional charges, internal taxes and charges levied on imports, and decreased customs valuation. India has agreed to provide Bangladeshi goods with duty-free access to its market "in phases" by December 31. The next meeting of the Joint Working Group on Trade will attempt to sort out how to reduce the number of goods on India's "sensitive lists" protected from the duty-free arrangement. Both sides also discussed greater tariff cuts, coordinated development of land customs stations, establishing "border haats" and greater Indian investment into Bangladesh. The Bangladeshi side displayed a mature response to the cumulative trade gap of $7-8 billion with New Delhi. Bangladesh Acting Foreign Secretary Touhid Hossain said, "It will not happen overnight...I am sure we will reach a point where Bangladesh exports to India will increase." However, Bangladesh is drawing up its list of exportable items for the duty-free access. How far these steps will go to reduce the huge trade deficit Bangladesh has with India remains to be seen.

Sharing of Security Information

Both sides have also agreed to share security information regarding cross-border crimes and look to accelerate resolutions on border and water-resources sharing. The joint statement signed at the end of the meeting reads, "The two sides emphasised the need for enhanced security cooperation, particularly information sharing between the authorities concerned." The details of expanding security cooperation are likely to be discussed in the upcoming meeting of the home secretaries of the two countries. Of significance is the understanding forged to share intelligence information on cross border crimes. This could lead to enhanced security cooperation between the two countries. Highlighting the importance of sharing security information, Menon said, "I think our securities are linked. We have a common security interest. Criminals, insurgents, terrorists--if any of these elements seek sanctuary, then it doesn't help either India or Bangladesh. We are both determined to work against this."

Issue of Support to Terrorism

Use of Bangladeshi territory by the insurgents and terrorists has been a sore point in the bilateral relationship of India and Bangladesh. During the recent meeting India wanted the military-backed interim government to dismantle the Islamic religious schools near the common border, inside Bangladesh because these were allegedly providing training facilities to anti-Indian insurgents. Bangladesh once again denied the presence of such facilities, but nevertheless agreed to monitor closely the activities of the religious schools known as madrassas.

Border demarcation

Both the foreign secretaries also identified completion of boundary demarcation, exchange of enclaves and adverse possessions as priorities that require "early resolution". India and Bangladesh share the longest land-boundary with each other. Menon stated that India would like to solve these problems as quickly as possible. He said, "Nothing holds us apart (on the issue)...If it suits us both, if it suits the situation on the ground, we will implement it soon."

Sharing of Water Resources

Regarding sharing of water resources, the two sides decided to leave it up to the upcoming meeting of the water-resources secretaries at the Joint Committee of Experts (JCE) to sort out details on common river water sharing, minor irrigation and drinking water schemes, flood-mitigation cooperation, and dredging and river bank protection work. The two foreign secretaries hoped to hold a Joint Rivers Commission meeting at the earliest after the JCE meeting.

Emphasis on increased connectivity

The two sides also stressed the need for greater land and train links. India agreed to send a team in the first week of July to coordinate outstanding logistical issues to start the long-awaited Dhaka-Kolkata rail-link. Menon observed that "there is a tremendous positive response" from the two countries towards the restoration of missing links. The chief advisor of Bangladesh caretaker government was also of the view that passenger and goods train service between the two countries will help peoples of both the countries.

Meeting with Chief Advisor

Menon made a courtesy call on Chief Adviser (CA) Fakhruddin Ahmed at his office. The CA said Bangladesh expects increased cooperation from India on key issues, particularly in water sharing, which is a common concern for both the countries. He mentioned that the last SAARC Summit in New Delhi undertook four priority issues--water (including flood control), food, energy and environment--to deal with, as they are vital for sustainability of the peoples of the countries in this region. He expressed his gratitude towards the government and the people of India for providing $10million assistance for the victims of landslides in Chittagong. Ahmed felt that foreign secretary-level meeting should be held on a regular basis for the stocktaking of bilateral relations. On the issue of use of Bangladeshi territory by insurgents and terrorists he said, "Bangladesh, as a matter of principle, does not allow its territory to be used by any force inimical to the interest of India."

Meeting with Khaleda and Hasina

Menon also met former Prime ministers Khaleda Zia and Sheikh Hasina separately who expressed their hope that India will take necessary steps to solve some prevailing issues between the two neighbouring countries to further boost up bilateral relationship. They expressed their hope to visiting Indian Foreign Secretary Shaivshankar Menon that the friendly ties between India and Bangladesh will be strengthened further through the meeting at the foreign secretary level.

Meeting separately, both the leaders elaborately discussed bilateral issues including the Ganges water-sharing accord, security, exchange of information, border terrorism, duty-free access of Bangladeshi goods to India, Chittagong Hill Tracts peace accord and reducing of imbalanced trade deficit. At the meeting, Hasina told Menon that India is a friendly country and the Awami League will extend its cooperation to help develop the bilateral relationship between the two countries. Focusing on different initiatives taken by her government with India, Khaleda expressed her hope that the foreign secretary level meeting between the two countries will continue in future and problems will be solved through meetings and bilateral relationship will be boosted up.

No decision by Bangladesh on Indian Capital Investment

A major disappointment of the visit was the failure of Bangladesh caretaker government to take any decision on the multi-billion dollar investment proposals from two Indian business giants, Mittal and Tata. The Bangladesh side indicated that the present caretaker government wants an elected government to make the decisions over these proposals. Dhaka�s vacillation over these proposals has reportedly not made India too happy.

Conclusion

It is true that some �positive uptrend� has been seen in Indo-Bangladesh relations. Both sides took advantage of improved political relations to discuss long-standing irritants such as demarcating 6.5km borderland, combating cross-border terrorism, greater access for Bangladeshi goods in India and improved road-rail connectivity. India has tried to deal with a major grievance of Bangladesh by allowing unilateral concessions. It plans to reduce duty level to zero and has removed the �non�tariff� barrier so far vociferously criticized by Bangladesh. Some of the major issues however still remain. There was hardly any progress over the issue of use of Bangladesh territory by the Indian insurgent groups. Bangladesh is still in denial mode. It has not taken any major action against them. The interim government has also not taken any decision towards the Indian capital investment in Bangladesh. Bangladesh must realize that it has a limited export basket. Even with the removal of non-tariff barriers and reduction of import duty to zero level, a huge trade gap will exist between India and Bangladesh. This will be so because Bangladesh does not have too many things to export. A change in this situation can be visualized only with the investment of Indian capital, which can expand the export basket of Bangladesh. It will also energize the economy of Bangladesh and improve intra-regional trade in south Asia. One hopes that progress on remaining issues are also made during the regime of present caretaker government, which in any case will be around till the end of 2008. The present caretaker wants an elected government to take decision on these issues. However, given the past track record of politicians of Bangladesh it appears difficult that any elected government in Bangladesh will have courage to act on these fronts. It appears, a beginning has to be made by the present dispensation, only then progress can be expected when elected governments takes charge.

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