With Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina having concluded her all important trip to India it is important to analyze the magnitude of this visit.
Over the span of four days, she held bilateral talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and met Indian President Droupadi Murmu and Indian Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar, signing seven memorandum of understandings (MoUs) between Bangladesh and India along with having several high-level discussions on political and security cooperation, defense, border management, trade and connectivity, water resources, power and energy, development cooperation, cultural and people-to-people links. There was also talks of collaboration in new areas such as, environment, climate change, cyber security, ICT, space technology, green energy, and the blue economy.
It is evident from the sheer number and variety of areas India and Bangladesh continue to engage in that this is a relationship that will continue to become stronger, a friendship that will become more resolute. India remains Bangladesh’s closest and most trusted ally, of that there is little doubt.
Indeed, it is now time to take this relationship to the next level, and ensure that all of the talks and intentions that have been proposed or signed see progress, that we do not remain content with just words expressed by the two leaders. Both nations have recently celebrated landmarks in terms of years of independence, and both nations have lofty economic ambitions for the immediate future, where focused collaboration will certainly assist in reaching those goals for both nations.
However, despite the vast array of areas that we intend to work closely with India on, there remain areas of contention that the PM unfortunately has yet to resolve, chief of which is the Teesta water-sharing deal; signed by the water resources secretaries of both countries in early 2011, it is disappointing that we continue to be stuck in limbo over a decade later regarding it.
We hope that a solution is found as soon as possible. In the meantime, we must celebrate the continued collaborative friendship that exists between Bangladesh and India, with genuine hope that despite the over 50 years of continued ties, this is just the beginning for both nations.