Delhi lines up Dhaka visits to firm up ties

From The Telegraph

ARCHIS MOHAN

SM Krishna Thimphu, Feb. 7: India today reiterated its desire to see a prosperous Bangladesh, having become conscious of efforts by the Sheikh Hasina government to normalise relations with Delhi. Of late, Bangladesh has been the only neighbour, besides Bhutan, which has had few complaints against subcontinent Big Brother India. Today, external affairs minister S.M. Krishna met his Bangladeshi counterpart Dipu Moni on the sidelines of the Saarc ministerial meeting in Thimphu and spoke of Delhi’s wish to see Bangladesh prosper. Indian officials said Delhi has noted the criticism that the Hasina government has faced from Opposition parties in her country for kow-towing to India. For once, it has also been pro-active. Foreign secretary Nirupama Rao is scheduled to visit Dhaka in March. Krishna will visit the Bangladeshi capital soon after, said an Indian official. New Delhi hopes the visits will keep up the momentum in bilateral relations and take forward the agreements reached between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Hasina when she visited India in January 2010. India wants to dispel the impression that the process initiated during Hasina’s visit has decelerated. Dipu Moni Rao and Krishna’s visits will be a precursor to Prime Minister Singh’s visit to Dhaka at the end of this year. Bangladesh hopes for some big-ticket announcement during Singh’s visit. The two sides are looking forward to an agreement on sharing the Teesta and Feni waters by that time and also resolve all boundary disputes. The Bangladeshi foreign minister today toldThe Telegraph that she was satisfied with the present momentum in the relations. The joint boundary working group of the two countries met in November, followed by discussions on sharing of the Teesta waters and a meeting between the two home secretaries. Power secretaries of the two countries are likely to meet later this month. Officials from both sides today said they were close to resolving their water- sharing and boundary disputes. Officials said a joint survey of the adverse possessions — little bits of territory that citizens have illegally occupied in each other’s country — has been done in Tripura and Assam and was in progress in Meghalaya and Bengal. Both countries will carry out a headcount of people living in their border enclaves in March. Bangladesh has 111 enclaves and India has 51. There was, however, one sour note at the meeting between Moni and Krishna. The Bangladeshi foreign minister raised the issue of the death of a 14-year-old girl near the border from BSF firing. Krishna assured her that the BSF had been asked to exercise extreme restraint.

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