Why In News :- Recently, India and Bangladesh Prime Ministers met and decided to resolve all bilateral issues, including the differences over the waters of the Teesta, “at an early date”.
Issues Discussed in Meeting:-
- The two sides signed seven agreements that include
- Railways
- Science and technology
- Space cooperation, media
- Water sharing
- Teesta Water Sharing Treaty
- Common border river Kushiyara
- Ganga Waters Agreement of 1996
- Annual floods in both the countries
Common Rivers between India and Bangladesh
- The Ganges
- Teesta
- Manu
- Muhuri
- Khowai
- Gumti
- Dharla
- Dudhkumar
- Kushiyara.
India Bangladesh Relations
- Political Relations
- India was among few countries who initially recognized Bangladesh and established diplomatic relations immediately after when Bangladesh got independence.
- SAARC , BIMSTEC , Indian ocean Coastal Regional cooperation Association , Commonwealth group are some major platforms which both countries share.
- Economic Sharing
- India’s biggest trade partner in the South Asian region is Bangladesh.
- Total exports from India to Bangladesh during 2021 was nearly 14 billion us dollar.
- Many experts are expecting that in the coming years Bangladesh will become the fourth largest export destination.
- Bangladesh majorly exports Garments and textile products to India and many other countries which is playing the biggest role in its economic growth.
- Infrastructural Cooperation
- India and Bangladesh both share cooperation in the power sector which is one of the main symbol of their relations.
- In case of power import, Bangladesh imports 1160 MegaWatt of power from India.
- In short terms it can be said that Bangladesh is India’s one of the major development partners.
- India is currently helping Bangladesh in its development related to railways , roads , shipping , ports etc by extending line of credit accounting 8 billion dollars.
- Military Cooperation
- High level dialogue exchange between service chief of all three forces
- Director General level talks between coast guards are very helpful in improving bilateral defence relations.
- Various military exercise takes place between both countries are
- Exercise Sampriti
- Exercise Milan
- Some programmes to improve connectivity between people of both countries
- Both the governments decided to commence Bus Service
- The Government of India is training nearly 2000 civil service officials from Bangladesh.
- Events like Yoga , Kathak , Mainpuri dance , classic music and cultural program is promoting people to people contact.
Some recent development in relationship between both countries related to railways
- Both the countries Inaugurated the restored railway link between Chilahati (Bangladesh) and Haldibari (India).
- Some examples are Passenger trains between India and Bangladesh such as Bandhan Express, Maitree Express ,Mitali Express
- India gave 10 broad gauge diesel locomotives as part of grant assistance to Bangladesh Railways.
- Both the governments are undertaking various measures to restore the pre-1965 rail links and other connectivity links that existed between India and Bangladesh.
Some steps needed for more improvement in their relationship
- There is a need to resolve the river water dispute so that it can act as a better way to boost India- Bangladesh relationship.
- Agencies of both sides need more engagement so that issues like illegal trading , trafficking , cattle smuggling etc get reduced.
- Both the sides should work together to strengthen groups like SAARC, BIMSTEC etc. so that the Neighbourhood policy of India gets better.
- India should look at many more ways so that the relationship with Bangladesh gets deeper, especially keeping in mind one thing that the geopolitics and geo-economics of south Asia and the whole world is continuously changing.
- Stability needs to be maintained in the relations of both countries , as both the countries are more or less agreed on most of the issues.
