Source: The Daily Independent

The Daily Independent and Centre for Foreign Affairs Studies organized a roundtable dialogue on January 20, 2010 where Foreign Minister Dipu Moni was the chief guest.

Bangladesh wants to sign an ad hoc deal with India on sharing Teesta waters immediately after a JRC meeting slated for March, foreign minister Dipu Moni said yesterday.

"The government wants to sign an ad hoc deal with India after the ministerial meeting of the Joint River Commission in March," she told a roundtable discussion on India-Bangladesh relations in the city.

The government does not want to wait for the results of joint hydrological observations on the river, she said.

She also stressed the importance of regional basin management of common rivers with a view to tapping hydroelectric power.

Leading foreign relations experts, economists, bureaucrats, academicians and politicians stressed the need for exploring the huge economic potential of friendly relations between India and Bangladesh and suggested that continuous engagement on the basis of national consensus was a must to remove the long-standing mistrust between the two neighbouring countries.

Addressing a roundtable discussion on Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's recent India visit jointly organised by The Independent and the Centre for Foreign Affairs Studies (CFAS) in the city yesterday, they noted that such a friendship must be based on mutual respect and on equal basis which required the resolution of the disputed issues.

Foreign Minister Dr Dipu Moni spoke on the occasion as the chief guest. Former foreign minister Anisul Islam Mahmud, former state minister for foreign affairs Abul Hasan Chowdhury, former foreign affairs adviser to the government Reaz Rahman and former adviser to the caretaker government Shafi Sami addressed as panels discussants. Former foreign secretary Farook Sobhan chaired the first session and Editor of The Independent and former adviser to the caretaker government Mahbubul Alam chaired the second session of the meeting moderated by CFAS chairman Ambassador Syed Ashfaqur Rahman.

Addressing the meeting, Dr Dipu Moni said that the government was hopeful of inking an ad hoc treaty on the water sharing of the Teesta after the holding of the meeting of the Joint River Commission in March this year before the dry season. She also said that the government envisaged solving the disputed water sharing issues of the common rivers through comprehensive basin management, not through a piecemeal basis.

"We are planning to resolve the water sharing problem of the region along with all the countries under a comprehensive basin management programme, not separating a single river with the whole gamut of the issues" the foreign minister said.

Underscoring the need for removing the long-standing mistrust and suspicion between the two countries, she said that after meeting with senior Indian ministers she had the clear notion that India was very keen to build peaceful and harmonious relations with Bangladesh.

Responding to the remarks that the government had not held any discussion with the opposition on the visit beforehand, she said  that it would have been better if there had been discussion in parliament before the visit but that could not be done as the opposition abstained from joining the house.

"But outside parliament a lot of discussions took place in other meetings and seminars. Several issues of the visit were elaborately discussed in the parliamentary committee also where the opposition members also expressed their opinions," she said.

Referring to the opposition criticism that the government attempted to sell the country through signing the agreements during the visit, the foreign minister said that none was given the sole agency of patriotism.

'The tendency of opposing everything done by the opposite party should be given up. We should remember that politics is not an issue of child-play and of devising tricks and propaganda. Lives of millions of people are involved in it so we should be very considerate and
careful while blaming someone for the sake of mere rivalry," she said.

Dipu Moni said that nothing was done and no agreement was made during the prime minister's India visit bypassing the election manifesto of the party.

"People gave us their massive mandate on the basis of our election manifesto which clearly incorporated the issue of regional connectivity".
Referring to the criticism that India was provided corridor in the name of trans-shipment, she said that those who were saying this did not know the difference between trans-shipment and corridor.

"Giving corridor means, to hand over control of a particular passage but we are not giving such facility to anybody", she pointed out.

In this regard she also mentioned that when the BNP was in power, it agreed to provide transit facility to India in 1980.

On the agreement on counter-terrorism she said that such an agreement was aimed at launching a comprehensive and united initiative to fight terrorism in the region.

"In other parts of the world such comprehensive initiative had already started but we could not do that  as we were busy in blaming each other" she added.

The foreign minister said that during the 16 years when the BNP was in power, nothing substantial could be achieved in regard to maritime boundary and water sharing or the Tipaimukh issue.

"Now one cannot expect everything from a single visit" she reminded.
Explaining the decision to go for arbitration over the maritime boundary she said that the country could not afford to sit idle keeping the issue unresolved for ever.

"We want to establish our legal rights over our sea resources in the disputed area and that is why we need to resolve the problem as soon as possible. We shall carry on negotiations with both India and Myanmar to resolve the issue and if the desired result would come from negotiations we shall withdraw the move for arbitration," she said.

The foreign minister said that the government was working on narrowing the mounting trade deficit between the two countries and with that objective an initiative was taken for enhancing trading of services and for attracting investment in the country as this huge deficit could not be narrowed through trading of goods only.

On the issue of killing of Bangladeshis by the BSF on the border, she said that the government had expressed its grievances over the issue during the bilateral meetings and the Indian government assured Bangladesh that effective steps would be taken to restrain the border forces in acts which would cause 'loss of lives'.

Reaz Rahman said that the main opposition BNP also supported the move to build friendly bilateral relations with India but that should be based on mutual respect and equal share.

He noted that friendly relations would remain illusive if India failed to address the fundamental concern of Bangladesh which includes due share of waters of the common rivers, stop construction of the Tipaimukh barrage, killing of Bangladeshis on the border, demarcation of the maritime boundary, and recognising the right of Bangladesh on the South Talpatti island.  

He said that during her visit, the prime minister left a bagful of goodies in Delhi but returned empty-handed.

Reaz Rahman, who is also adviser to the leader of the main opposition BNP chairperson Begum Khaleda Zia, said that though India had assured Bangladesh many times in the past of doing 'no harm', it never kept the pledge.

Assurance from the highest level of India was given during the commissioning of the Farakka barrage but that was not maintained. 'So accepting the 'no harm' assurance virtually  means giving the go-ahead to the construction of the Tipaimukh Barrage", he said.

He also said that mistrust among the people of Bangladesh over India originated from India's past activities to deprive Bangladesh of its due share.

He said that the agreements over the transhipment and transit signed by the Prime Minister would  benefit India only.

'We are not against regional connectivity but we are against giving  connectivity for the benefit of a single country" he added.

He said that India had always restricted duty free market access of Bangladeshi products to its market under various pretexts.

Bangladesh had never done anything to earn the mistrust of the Indian people but whenever a subversive incident took place in India they pointed their fingers towards Bangladesh. "Whereas Bangladesh has never done anything against India's stance on Kashmir and Tibet" he added.

Abul Hasan Chowdhury said that mutual trust was very much important to build friendly relations but Bangladesh had done more than its share to earn the trust.

"Friendship with India would benefit us but there are some life and death questions which needs to be resolved" he said referring to water sharing of the common rivers and the Tipaimukh issue.

He also urged the opposition to discuss their points regarding the agreements with India  in parliament.

He cautioned that if Bangladesh failed to resolve the maritime demarcation issue with India and Myanmar, it would find itself a landlocked country. 

Shafi Sami hailed the signing of the counter terrorism agreement saying that terrorism was a menace for both countries.

He said that in recent times Indian terrorists were found in Bangladesh. So intelligence sharing between the two countries would benefit both countries.
He said that the prime minister's visit opened up a new horizon in Indo-Bangladesh relations.

Editor of The Independent and former adviser to the caretaker government Mahbubul Alam said that there was no alternative to continuous engagement and dialogue was crucial to strengthen the bilateral relations between these two countries.

He hoped that a fruitful discussion would take place in parliament over the agreements signed with India when the agreement would be placed for ratification in the house in line with Article 147 (A) of the constitution.

Stating prime minister's visit to India as a unique opportunity for mutual benefit for both Bangladesh and India, former foreign secretary Farooq Sobhan said, there were 30 points in the joint communiqué which needed to be implemented. For that, he suggested to appoint special envoys for follow-up action that would also have a group to help them.
Farooq Sobhan said that connectivity, non-tariff barrier and zero tariff access issues were extremely important and these should be addressed within the next three to six months.
He said if there was good communication between the two countries, we could join hands together and our economic growth will rise 8 to 9 per cent. He said it was expected the discussion of the roundtable would narrow the difference between the countries.

He also hoped that following the communiqué the next high level visit from India should be held within the next six month. By this time both  countries could evaluate the results of the visit.

In his speech former foreign minister Anisul Islam Mahmud stressed the need for building a barrage in the downstream of the Padma river so that Bangladesh could use maximum of the Ganges water which it shares with India.

"We will not solve the problem if we think of a barrage along with water sharing. Our share of water is not that much that we will allow to send it to the Bay of Bengal", the former foreign and water resources minister added.

Anis Mahmud disparaged the previous BNP government for trade deficiency with India and stated it was the BNP which made Bangladesh the goods market of India during 1991 to '96 by one-sided withdrawal of duties.

Hailing the treaty on anti- terrorism with India, Anis Mahmud said terrorism was not only a threat to India but recent terrorist activities proved that it was also to Bangladesh. Terrorists were coming to Bangladesh from India.

The JP leader thanked the prime minister for taking a bold step to build  relations with India ignoring fear of vote bank. He said the relations with India deteriorated in the early 70s after Bangladesh's membership of the  OIC but this time the situation was reverse and in future it would be cemented.

Former foreign minister Anisul Islam Mahmud, former state minister for foreign affairs Abul Hasan Chowdhury, former foreign secretary and advisor to the caretaker government  C. M. Shafi Sami, former state minister and BNP chairperson's foreign affairs advisor Reaz Rahman were key speakers at the roundtable.

Among others, former state minister on foreign affairs Wazed Ali Khan Panni, former ambassador M Serajul Islam, former director ESCAP Dr. Rahamatullah,  former ambassador Abdul Momen Chaudhury, former ambassador Anwar Hashim, former ambassador Mohammad Zamir, former ambassador Ms. Nasim Firdaus, former ambassador Shahed Akhter, Former IGP Nurul Huda, former country director world bank Forest Cookson, professor Barkat-e-Khoda of Dhaka university, former ambassador Masud Ahmed, former ambassador Masud Aziz, Professor Shahiduzzaman of Dhaka University and former ambassador Mahmud Hasan participated in the discussion.

 

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