Delhi, Dhaka fix border
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh with Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina after landing at Dhaka airport on Tuesday. AP
The Teesta river deal between India and Bangladesh, which was expected to mark the historic and high-profile visit of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to Bangladesh, was finally put off. Bangladesh, in a way, responded by pushing the transit protocol to the so-called visionary document — “Framework
Agreement on Cooper-ation and Development” — signed by Dr Singh and his Bangladesh counterpart, Sheikh Hasina, on Tuesday. Along with Teesta, the water-sharing arrangement for the Feni river also remained unresolved.
Earlier on Tuesday, as the Teesta issue cast a shadow over the proposed signing of documents, debate raged across the political spectrum in Bangladesh with local TV channels flashing a statement by the Bangladesh foreign ministry saying “No Teesta, no transit”. However, Dr Singh reached out to Bangladesh, saying “our common rivers need not be sources of discord but harbingers of prosperity and peace”. Dr Singh said India and Bangladesh have decided to “continue discussions to reach a mutually acceptable, fair and amicable arrangement for the sharing of Teesta and Feni river waters”.
Yet the Teesta fiasco did not dampen the spirit of the summit. Both sides signed the protocol to the historic agreement of 1974. With this both countries demarcated the entire land boundary and resolved the status of enclaves and “adversely possessed areas”. While 51 enclaves within Bangladesh will be absorbed by India, 111 within Indian territory will be absorbed by Bangladesh.
Even though West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee successfully blocked the Teesta agreement, India took a step to correct the “problem of trade imbalance”. With immediate effect, India will provide duty-free access to the Indian market to 46 textile tariff lines, as sought by Bangladesh. In the power sector, India decided to connect the country’s national grids and will also assist in setting up a 1,320-MW joint venture power plant in Khulna. Bangladesh also gained on the transit front with India signing an MoU to facilitate “overland transit traffic between Bangladesh and Nepal”.
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