After overlooking India’s natural partner Bangladesh for so long, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has finally walked the walk. With a successful visit to Dhaka, he has shown his commitment to making this developmental process enduring.
Indeed, there was extreme underestimation of the significance of Bangladesh in Indian policy circles. Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s visit to India last year was the beginning of a journey. Sheikh Hasina invested a great deal of political capital in trying to transform the sensitive relationship with India. Dr Singh completed the unfinished task of the first phase after his visit to Bangladesh. The new framework developed by Dr Singh and Sheikh Hasina could serve as a template of a very different Indian approach to the sub-continent.
Dr Singh appreciated Bangladesh’s key strengths during his visit. He said, “Like India, Bangladesh has an active civil society and a vibrant and free media. The institutions of pluralistic democracy are gaining in experience and strength.” Bangladesh is one of the 11 emerging economies that will contribute to global growth and it has huge potential to help reintegrate the eastern subcontinent and reconnect South Asia to East Asia.
The fear of Talibanisation of Bangladesh remains real for much of India’s security establishment, although Dhaka has reversed what New Delhi perceived as its dalliance with Islamic extremists. Reaffirming their commitment to work together to confront the challenge of extremism, Dr Singh acknowledged the immense cooperation received from Bangladesh in this area.
Dhaka was looking for the removal of the quota for Bangladeshi garments. New Delhi responded positively by issuing a notification removing all 46 textile tariff lines of greatest sensitivity to Bangladesh from the negative list for Least Developed Countries under Safta. Further, Bangladeshi exports of these items to India will be duty-free with immediate effect. Also, there will be no quota restrictions on these items.
The failure to sign the Teesta river water-sharing agreement was a huge disappointment for Dhaka. As a result it rescinded the decision to ink the transit deal that New Delhi wanted. This development cast a shadow over the visit’s outcome though both sides appeared to work hard to paper over the differences.
The outstanding issue of the un-demarcated boundary has also been resolved. Without dislocating people living in the border areas, both governments have worked out the issues of the enclaves. The status of 111 Indian enclaves in Bangladesh and 51 Bangladesh enclaves in India has been addressed.
To harness the advantage of sub-regional cooperation, India and Bangladesh signed a MoU to facilitate overland transit traffic, including rail transit between Bangladesh and Nepal, through Indian territory. This will smooth the progress of bilateral trade between Dhaka and Kathmandu and encourage greater economic activity in the region.
The Bilateral Investment Promotion and Protection Agreement (BIPPA) and Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) between India and Bangladesh will facilitate investment-led trade . Earlier, Bangladeshi businessmen could not invest in India as it was on the banned list of countries; this has been amended with the ratification of BIPPA.
There has been a regular exchange of business delegations, resulting in several joint venture agreements in areas such as packaging, animal foods, auto components, denim, and household utensils. (In fact, Bangladesh’s exports to India increased by 52 per cent in the first nine months of 2010-11.) Such moves will help broaden Bangladesh’s manufacturing base.
Economic complementarities between India and Bangladesh and efforts made by both sides are synergising business opportunities between the two countries. To increase interaction among the business community and professionals, India may encourage multiple-entry business visas to bona fide Bangladeshi businessmen, as this will both ease business mobility and also create awareness of each other’s business competencies.
Dr Singh has outlined the agenda for the future as well. He noted, “The governments of both countries have the unfinished agenda of providing adequate food, adequate shelter and adequate healthcare to their people; protecting them from floods and other natural disasters and empowering them to earn a decent living.” Both countries agreed to cooperate in the areas of conservation of biodiversity, joint management of resources, livelihood generation for poverty alleviation and development, cataloguing of local flora and fauna and studying the impacts of climate change.
Though there is disappointment among people on both sides because of a failure of the likely agreement on the management of common waters, there were apprehensions on both sides. Dr Singh, however, has put on record that India will not take steps that may adversely affect Bangladesh. Both parties are making efforts to resolve this issue.
Establishment of a high-level — preferably ministerial — joint consultative commission at the earliest for effective and smooth implementation of various agreements will be appreciated. To reinforce growth and development in the sub-continent, the commitment to cooperate must be sustained. Dhaka will remain a natural partner for Delhi. The Dhaka-Delhi model of collaboration could serve as a paradigm for similar situations in South Asia.
Rajeev Ranjan Chaturvedy is the Head, Foreign Policy Forum, at Ficci, and Iftekhar Ahmed Chowdhury is a Senior Research Fellow at ISAS, Singapore. The views are personal
