Water sharing, Covid, trade imbalance to feature in Hasina-Modi summit

Dhaka will raise the issues of river water sharing, cooperation to combat Covid-19 and trade imbalance during Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's virtual summit with her Indian counterpart Narendra Modi on Thursday.

Officials said the Bangladesh side will also focus on other bilateral matters, including border killing, connectivity, power swap and the Rohingya crisis.

The two countries are expected to sign nine Memorandums of Understanding (MoUs) in different fields.

Furthermore, Chilahati-Haldibari rail link, a pre-1965 connectivity line, would be inaugurated along with some other projects during the virtual summit.

Announcing the virtual meeting officially on Monday, the Indian Ministry of External Affairs said both the leaders will hold comprehensive discussions on the entire spectrum of bilateral relationships.

The two premiers will discuss ways to further strengthen cooperation in the post-Covid-19 era.

India and Bangladesh have continued to maintain regular exchanges at the highest level, said the external affairs ministry of India.

However, regarding the preparedness of the summit, Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen said: "It is likely that as many as nine MoUs on different sectors will be signed during their virtual meeting…but these are yet to be finalised as officials are still working on it," reports BSS.

Earlier, Bangladesh foreign ministry officials said the number of MoUs to be signed between the two sides could be as high as four.

Elaborating the issues which would be dealt with during the summit, Foreign Minister Momen hinted that Dhaka would seek to bring under a single framework the issues of seven major trans-boundary rivers – Monu, Muhuri, Gomti, Dharla, Dudhkumar, Feni and Teesta.

He said the Bangladesh side would seek to hold a ministerial level Joint River Commission (JRC) meeting soon, if possible by next month, to make a framework for resolving the issues relating to these seven common streams.

Regarding the pending Teesta treaty, Momen said the agreement was finalised long ago as the "Indian side even signed on every page of the agreement".

"The final deal is there, it just awaits implementation," he said, adding that New Delhi made repeated promises for its implementation in the past several years.

The foreign minister, however, simultaneously pointed out that the central government of India was facing hurdles from the West Bengal state government on the question of implementing the agreement.

Momen said the Bangladesh side would also re-convey its concern over India's Border Security Force (BSF) actions claiming lives of Bangladeshis along the frontiers. 

According to the foreign minister, Dhaka would urge New Delhi to take some effective measures to reduce the bilateral trade gap, which continued to tilt heavily on India's favour, to strengthen further trade cooperation between the two neighbours.

"We will urge India to reduce non-tariff trade barriers on Bangladeshi products to reduce the trade gap."

Momen said Dhaka would also seek "standard harmonisation" between the quality regulating or testing authorities of the two countries "so that Bangladeshi products can enter Indian market smoothly".

He said Dhaka would also demand India's preferential treatment to Bangladeshi businessmen as New Delhi "currently offers the same facilities to investors from Bangladesh and Pakistan".

The foreign minister said Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina would urge her counterpart to expedite implementation of projects under the Indian Line of Credit (LoC).

Momen said bilateral cooperation on the raging pandemic was likely to be top on agenda during the summit while "India has already promised us that it will provide Covid vaccine to Bangladesh first" and the talks are expected to reinforce that understanding.

Bangladesh's Beximco Pharma signed a MoU with India's Serum Institute on November 5 for priority delivery of 30 million doses of prospective coronavirus vaccine to Bangladesh.

Meanwhile, Indian external affairs ministry said India and Bangladesh have continued to maintain regular exchanges at the highest level.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina paid an official visit to India in October 2019 while Prime Minister Narendra Modi delivered a video message on the historic occasion of Mujib Barsho in March 2020.

Both leaders have remained in regular touch during the Covid pandemic.

Momen said Dhaka would also seek India's enhanced engagement in resolving the Rohingya crisis at the United Nations as Bangladesh extended its support for India's temporary membership at the UN Security Council this year.

India would start attending UNSG meetings from January next while Dhaka sought the neighbour's crucial support in line with the existing deep relation between India and Bangladesh.

The foreign minister said the two premiers were set to jointly declare "Shawdhinata Sarak" (Independence Road) -- an existing two-kilometre road on zero lines along Bangladesh's western frontier at Mujibnagar in Meherpur.

He said the road at the site, where the first Bangladesh government was sworn-in in 1971, would be open for people of both countries to be cleared at immigration check posts.

The two premiers would also witness reopening of an old railway link, Chilahati-Haldibari rail route, after 55 years since it was snapped during the India-Pakistan war in 1965 when Bangladesh was a part of Pakistan.

Sheikh Hasina and Modi will also inaugurate the 'Bangabandhu-Bapu Digital Museum' to pay tributes to the founders of Bangladesh and India while some footage of Bangabandhu's under-construction biopic being made by famous Indian filmmaker Shyam Benegal would be screened during the summit, said Momen.

Sheikh Hasina and Modi held last bilateral talks in New Delhi on October 5 last year while a scheduled visit of the latter to join Bangabandhu's birth centenary celebrations was cancelled due to Covid-19.

Dhaka by now invited the Indian premier to join in person Bangladesh's 50 years of independence celebrations on March 26, 2021.