INDIAN FOREIGN SECRETARY’S VISIT

No public mention of Teesta

Visiting Indian Foreign Secretary Vijay Keshav Gokhale said Delhi is aware of some outstanding issues and both the countries are trying to resolve those as early as possible. However, he did not publicly refer to the much-talked about Teesta water sharing agreement, described by many as the major irritants of the Dhaka-Delhi relationship, in his two speeches yesterday.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister’s International Affairs Adviser Dr Gower Rizvi, who attended a programme as the chief guest with Gokhale, did not raise the issue of the Teesta deal. Instead, he stated that all the outstanding issues between Bangladesh and India have been resolved and efforts should to intensify the relationship much broader and greater.

The Teesta water sharing deal was supposed to be signed on September 5, 2011 but could not happen reportedly because of last minute objection by West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.

On the Rohingya crisis, the Indian foreign secretary voiced his country’s support to efforts to solve the protracted problem.

Both countries signed six bilateral instruments on the day aiming to enhance cooperation on different sectors.

“While I have dwelt extensively on the positives of the relationship and probably you will agree that it was rightly so, we are aware of a few outstanding issues which both sides are committed to resolving at the earliest opportunity,” Indian foreign secretary told the second chapter of the bilateral conclave on India-Bangladesh Relations titled ‘Deepening Cooperation and the Way Ahead’ organised by the Institute for Policy, Advocacy and Governance (IPAG) at a hotel in the capital.

“Friends, while I have focused on the tremendous progress we have achieved in our bilateral relationship, we are also aware of a few of the outstanding issues. We assure you, we are working hard to resolve them,” he said after his bilateral talks with his Bangladeshi counterpart Foreign Secretary Shahidul Haque at the state guest house, Padma.

At the conclave, Dr Rizvi placed great emphasis on improved connectivity in the spirit of sub-regional cooperation involving

Bangladesh, Bhutan, India and Nepal and said that infrastructure should be put in place to get better connectivity.

Reflecting on the past in regards to the Dhaka-Delhi ties, he said that there was never any fundamental issue between Bangladesh and India, rather it was an internal matter of Bangladesh.

The Indian foreign secretary described the present bilateral relationship as ‘the best ever’, saying, “The relationship between countries, in particular neighbours, can never be excellent if there is lack of political will on either or both sides.”

“In our case, we have been fortunate to have political leaders on both sides who are willing to go the extra mile to take the relationship to newer heights for the benefit of our people, our countries and the region,” he said.

“If we look back to take stock of where we were in our bilateral relations just a decade ago and where we stand today, we can discern the extraordinary progress made,” said Gokhale, reminding the audience that since 2010, more than 100 agreements have been signed between the two countries, including 68 agreements in the last 3 years alone.

“Our bilateral cooperation is based on a ‘win-win’ formula for both countries based on mutuality of interests. Both our countries, therefore, attach the highest priority to continuing the strong momentum in our bilateral relations,” said the Indian foreign secretary, who assumed the office at the end of January.

While both the countries have made tremendous progress in many areas of bilateral cooperation, some challenges remain to be faced together including terrorism, extremism and radicalisation, which both countries are committed to fight, he said.

“Cooperation on all matters related to security has been excellent in the last few years,” he added.

The Indian foreign secretary said that efforts are there to bring down the border killing to zero and stressed the need for ‘de-criminalisation of the border’.

The bilateral trade between Bangladesh and India has almost tripled in the last 10 years from USD 2.75 billion in 2008-09 to 7.52 billion in 2016-17, he said. The bilateral trade is hugely in favour of India.   

Cooperation in the power sector has become one of the hallmarks of India Bangladesh relations, said Gokhale.

Bangladesh is currently importing about 660 MW of power from India and supply of another 500 MW is expected to begin by June, 2018, he said.

“An issue that has attracted international attention for the last few months has been the influx of a large number of displaced persons from the Rakhine region of Myanmar since August last year. Bangladesh’s humanitarian gesture in supporting lakhs of these displaced persons has been truly commendable,” Gokhale said without mentioning the word ‘Rohingya’ and referring to them as ‘displaced persons’.

“India has been fully supportive of the ongoing efforts being made to resolve the crisis, including early repatriation of the displaced persons. For our part, we had sent relief materials for 300,000 people in September last year under ‘Operation Insaniyat’ to support Government of Bangladesh in its humanitarian efforts,” he said.

“We are planning a second tranche of assistance in keeping with the needs projected by the Government of Bangladesh. On the Myanmar side, we are providing socio-economic support under our Rakhine State Development Programme including construction of pre-fabricated housing in order to meet the needs of the returning people,” he added.

Following his meeting with Foreign Secretary Haque, Gokhale called the discussions extremely useful, saying, “We discussed the challenges and opportunities that we need to face together”.

“India remains a committed development partner of Bangladesh and we have totally extended lines of credit of over USD 8 billion to Bangladesh in the last seven years.  This is the largest amount of credit India has ever committed to any single country.  We are confident that this credit will be useful to Bangladesh as it pursues its developmental priorities,” he said.  

“People-to-people contact is the edifice of our relationship and we have taken a number of steps that have more resonance at the popular level. At present, Bangladesh nationals are the largest number of visitors to India – our High Commission in Bangladesh issued a record number of 14 lakh visas in 2017, the highest by any Indian Mission,” said the Indian foreign secretary.

Five of the six bilateral instruments signed yesterday were memorandums of understanding (MoUs) that are related to a friendship pipeline between Numaligarh and Parbatipur, cooperation between Prasar Bharati and Bangladesh BETAR, installation of an ICCR Urdu chair in Dhaka University, grant projects to set up language labs in 500 schools in Bangladesh and upgrade of different roads in Rangpur city.

The other instrument was an addendum to Inter-agency agreement between Global Centre for Nuclear Energy Partnership (GCNEP) and Bangladesh Atomic Energy Commission (BAEC).

 

INDIAN FOREIGN SECRETARYS VISIT

No public mention of Teesta

Visiting Indian Foreign Secretary Vijay Keshav Gokhale said Delhi is aware of some outstanding issues and both the countries are trying to resolve those as early as possible. However, he did not publicly refer to the much-talked about Teesta water sharing agreement, described by many as the major irritants of the Dhaka-Delhi relationship, in his two speeches yesterday. Meanwhile, Prime Ministers International Affairs Adviser Dr Gower Rizvi, who attended a programme as the chief guest with Gokhale, did not raise the issue of the Teesta deal. Instead, he stated that all the outstanding issues between Bangladesh and India have been resolved and efforts should to intensify the relationship much broader and greater. The Teesta water sharing deal was supposed to be signed on September 5, 2011 but could not happen reportedly because of last minute objection by West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. On the Rohingya crisis, the Indian foreign secretary voiced his countrys support to efforts to solve the protracted problem. Both countries signed six bilateral instruments on the day aiming to enhance cooperation on different sectors. While I have dwelt extensively on the positives of the relationship and probably you will agree that it was rightly so, we are aware of a few outstanding issues which both sides are committed to resolving at the earliest opportunity, Indian foreign secretary told the second chapter of the bilateral conclave on India-Bangladesh Relations titled Deepening Cooperation and the Way Ahead organised by the Institute for Policy, Advocacy and Governance (IPAG) at a hotel in the capital. Friends, while I have focused on the tremendous progress we have achieved in our bilateral relationship, we are also aware of a few of the outstanding issues. We assure you, we are working hard to resolve them, he said after his bilateral talks with his Bangladeshi counterpart Foreign Secretary Shahidul Haque at the state guest house, Padma. At the conclave, Dr Rizvi placed great emphasis on improved connectivity in the spirit of sub-regional cooperation involving Bangladesh, Bhutan, India and Nepal and said that infrastructure should be put in place to get better connectivity. Reflecting on the past in regards to the Dhaka-Delhi ties, he said that there was never any fundamental issue between Bangladesh and India, rather it was an internal matter of Bangladesh. The Indian foreign secretary described the present bilateral relationship as the best ever, saying, The relationship between countries, in particular neighbours, can never be excellent if there is lack of political will on either or both sides. In our case, we have been fortunate to have political leaders on both sides who are willing to go the extra mile to take the relationship to newer heights for the benefit of our people, our countries and the region, he said. If we look back to take stock of where we were in our bilateral relations just a decade ago and where we stand today, we can discern the extraordinary progress made, said Gokhale, reminding the audience that since 2010, more than 100 agreements have been signed between the two countries, including 68 agreements in the last 3 years alone. Our bilateral cooperation is based on a win-win formula for both countries based on mutuality of interests. Both our countries, therefore, attach the highest priority to continuing the strong momentum in our bilateral relations, said the Indian foreign secretary, who assumed the office at the end of January. While both the countries have made tremendous progress in many areas of bilateral cooperation, some challenges remain to be faced together including terrorism, extremism and radicalisation, which both countries are committed to fight, he said. Cooperation on all matters related to security has been excellent in the last few years, he added. The Indian foreign secretary said that efforts are there to bring down the border killing to zero and stressed the need for de-criminalisation of the border. The bilateral trade between Bangladesh and India has almost tripled in the last 10 years from USD 2.75 billion in 2008-09 to 7.52 billion in 2016-17, he said. The bilateral trade is hugely in favour of India. Cooperation in the power sector has become one of the hallmarks of India Bangladesh relations, said Gokhale. Bangladesh is currently importing about 660 MW of power from India and supply of another 500 MW is expected to begin by June, 2018, he said. An issue that has attracted international attention for the last few months has been the influx of a large number of displaced persons from the Rakhine region of Myanmar since August last year. Bangladeshs humanitarian gesture in supporting lakhs of these displaced persons has been truly commendable, Gokhale said without mentioning the word Rohingya and referring to them as displaced persons. India has been fully supportive of the ongoing efforts being made to resolve the crisis, including early repatriation of the displaced persons. For our part, we had sent relief materials for 300,000 people in September last year under Operation Insaniyat to support Government of Bangladesh in its humanitarian efforts, he said. We are planning a second tranche of assistance in keeping with the needs projected by the Government of Bangladesh. On the Myanmar side, we are providing socio-economic support under our Rakhine State Development Programme including construction of pre-fabricated housing in order to meet the needs of the returning people, he added. Following his meeting with Foreign Secretary Haque, Gokhale called the discussions extremely useful, saying, We discussed the challenges and opportunities that we need to face together. India remains a committed development partner of Bangladesh and we have totally extended lines of credit of over USD 8 billion to Bangladesh in the last seven years. This is the largest amount of credit India has ever committed to any single country. We are confident that this credit will be useful to Bangladesh as it pursues its developmental priorities, he said. People-to-people contact is the edifice of our relationship and we have taken a number of steps that have more resonance at the popular level. At present, Bangladesh nationals are the largest number of visitors to India our High Commission in Bangladesh issued a record number of 14 lakh visas in 2017, the highest by any Indian Mission, said the Indian foreign secretary. Five of the six bilateral instruments signed yesterday were memorandums of understanding (MoUs) that are related to a friendship pipeline between Numaligarh and Parbatipur, cooperation between Prasar Bharati and Bangladesh BETAR, installation of an ICCR Urdu chair in Dhaka University, grant projects to set up language labs in 500 schools in Bangladesh and upgrade of different roads in Rangpur city. The other instrument was an addendum to Inter-agency agreement between Global Centre for Nuclear Energy Partnership (GCNEP) and Bangladesh Atomic Energy Commission (BAEC).