Bangladesh, India discuss river project as China visit looms

Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina made bilateral visit to New Delhi recently, as Dhaka aims to balance ties between an increasingly competitive China and India.

Hasina’s visit to New Delhi is her second in a fortnight. She also attended Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s swearing-in ceremony on June 9, who won a third term in office in recently concluded national elections, reports Bloomberg.

Hasina is expected to visit Beijing next month, according to Bangladeshi officials who are directly aware of the matter but asked not to be named as discussions are private.

High on the agenda is the status of a river that flows through India into Bangladesh. Modi and Hasina are expected to discuss how the two countries should share the waters of the 414km-long (257 miles) Teesta river, said an Indian and Bangladeshi officials, who asked not to be named as they were not authorized to speak with the media.

The two countries share 54 rivers that flow from the Himalayas into the Bay of Bengal. Negotiations to decide each country’s quota of the Teesta’s waters began in the 1980s. An agreement was reached in 2011 but could not be sealed after the eastern Indian state of West Bengal, through which the river flows before it enters Bangladesh, objected to the deal.

As India has dithered over resolving the issue, China has submitted a formal proposal to help implement a Dhaka-led initiative to better manage the waters it does get from the river, said senior officials aware of the details. The Teesta River Comprehensive Management and Restoration project is estimated to cost about $1 billion.

Hasina told Bangladesh’s parliament earlier this month that the country is considering China’s proposal. Concerned about Chinese engineers working close to India’s borders, New Delhi offered to fund the project when Indian Foreign Secretary Vinay Kwatra visited Bangladesh in May, the people familiar said but added that India has yet to submit a formal proposal.

A line of credit for Bangladesh with somewhat easier terms is also on the agenda during the talks, said the officials. Bangladesh and India’s foreign ministries did not respond to requests for comment.

The two neighbors have long maintained close ties, but Bangladesh has also grown closer to China in recent years, much to India’s alarm. Beijing has lent money, funded infrastructure projects and Dhaka is a member of China’s Belt and Road Initiative.