No Teesta deal during Modis visit: Sushma
UNB
Indian External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on Sunday said the Teesta water sharing agreement will not happen during Prime Minister Narendra Modis visit to Bangladesh, reports UNB.
There was no consensus so far on Teesta, as this agreement was not just a bilateral affair with Bangladesh but it involved West Bengal too, Swaraj said.
She made the remark while replying to a question at a press conference in New Delhi on the completion of one year of Indian diplomacy under the Modi government, Indian media reported quoting Indian news agency UNI.
The Indian Minister also said West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee was accompanying the Prime Minister to Dhaka not for Teesta but in connection with the Land Boundary Agreement.
Indian and Bangladesh governments cannot just come to a conclusion on Teesta issue, the State government too has to be taken on board, she was quoted by NDTV as saying.
Modi is scheduled to visit Bangladesh on June 6-7 while Mamata will arrive on June 5.
The Teesta water-sharing issue is likely to come up for discussion during the two-day visit starting June 6. Syed Muazzem Ali, Bangladesh High Commissioner to India, speaking Thursday at the Idea Exchange programme of The Indian Express, said he was quite hopeful that something positive will come out of the talks in India on the Teesta deal, adds a news agency. The river agreement was to be signed in September 2011 but was scuttled by Mamata Banerjee who refused to accompany Manmohan Singh, the then Prime Minister, to Bangladesh where he had hoped to ink the pact. The government later said nothing would be done without consulting the West Bengal government.
Setting at rest speculation, TMC secretary general and minister Partha Chatterjee said, West Bengal Chief Minister is visiting Dhaka for the signing of the Land Boundary Agreement. Hope it will cement ties between India and Bangladesh further.
