Foreign Affairs Adviser Mohammad Touhid Hossain on Sunday said Bangladesh’s relations with India will not be held back by a couple of unresolved issues, including the matter involving former prime minister Sheikh Hasina.
“Whether it is Teesta water or border killings — these will remain alongside the matter of returning Sheikh Hasina. One is not dependent on the other,” he said. “Our interests will remain, and our efforts to secure them will continue. We want them to be returned so that the sentence can be executed. But I don’t think everything else will be stuck because of this.”
He made the remarks while speaking at a DCAB Talk titled “Bangladesh’s Foreign Policy: Relevant Role in a Changing World”, organized by the Diplomatic Correspondents Association of Bangladesh (DCAB) at the National Press Club in Dhaka.
Regarding former home minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal, Touhid Hossain said he has no official information. “We all know he is in India. But that has never been communicated to us in writing. I have no information that extradition will begin with him,” he added.
Responding to a question, he said the earlier “warm relationship” with India did not necessarily reflect public sentiment. “To me, and to many others, it seemed that the warm relationship was between the two governments. The people’s role there was very limited. Although there were many complaints, the then government did not take them into account.”
He said frustration over Teesta water sharing and border killings was widespread. “The prevous government that had a warm relationship with India for 15 years — were they able to resolve even one of these two issues?” he asked.
“This outward warmth is not the real matter. The real matter is whether our interests were being secured; clearly they were not. So I do not want to say there were ‘good relations’ with India. There was a kind of relationship — it was deep for the government.”
