Tista deal unlikely during PM’s India visit [ Tritiyo Matra News ]

Tista deal unlikely during PM’s India visit

Local April 05, 2017

Several matters relating to Bangladesh’s interest, including the signing of Tista River water sharing agreement, are unlikely to be resolved during prime minister Sheikh Hasina’s forthcoming visit to India although the two countries would sign some 33 deals, including a memo on defence cooperation.
‘It doesn’t matter much if some issues remain unresolved,’ foreign minister AH Mahmood Ali said replying to a question on the possibility of the signing of the Tista water sharing agreement.
‘It is important to observe the main stream of the negotiations, where it is heading to,’ he said at a press conference on the visit on Tuesday.
He said that 33 deals would be signed in different areas of cooperation including defence, information communication technology, satellite, geological science, border hat and community clinic.
Unless there is a breakthrough in securing Indian concurrence for joint construction of the Padma-Ganges Barrage in Rajbari, the Bangladesh side is likely to demand a timeline in this regard, officials said.
The government has communicated with the Indian side that the prime minister’s visit should deliver, by both sides, to the people’s expectations on water-related issues including the Tista deal, they said.
They said that the government had put negotiations
on reaching agreements on the sharing of waters of six transboundary rivers on the back burners as the two countries could not sign an interim agreement on the sharing of waters of Tista and Feni rivers in spite of formal commitments from two successive Indian prime ministers, Manmohan Singh and Narendra Modi, in the past six years.
The six rivers are Feni, Manu, Muhuri, Khowai, Gumti, Dharla and Dudhkumar.
The dispute on the removal of anti-dumping duty imposed by Indian government on Bangladesh’s export of jute and jute products would also remain unresolved, the officials said.
Hasina would be in New Delhi on Friday on a four-day state visit at the joint invitation of Indian president Pranab Mukherjee and prime minister Narendra Modi.
The two prime ministers would hold official talks at the Hyderabad House in New Delhi on Saturday. Matters relating to water sharing, construction of Padma-Ganges Barrage in Bangladesh, expansion of trade, increase of Indian investment in Bangladesh, multifaceted connectivity, defence cooperation, containing human trafficking and smuggling of drug, among others, would be discussed during the talks, Mahmood Ali said.
The government would sign a memorandum of understanding with provisions, among others, for annual consultation among top leaderships of the armed forces and defence ministries of the two countries.
A memorandum of understanding would be signed opening a third line of credit for about $4.5 billion from India under conditions usually applied for supplier’s credit for 18 development projects.
Another memorandum would be signed opening a fourth line of credit for about $500 million from India for defence purchase.
Hasina would call on Indian president Pranab Mukherjee. Indian National Congress president Sonia Gandhi and external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj would call on the Bangladesh prime minister. The prime minister would address a business conclave in New Delhi on April 10.
The Indian government would publish the Hindi version of The Unfinished Memoirs, autobiography by Bangladesh’s founding president Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, during the visit.
Hasina would lead a 40-member official delegation, including foreign minister AH Mahmood Ali, law minister Anisul Huq, water resources minister Anisul Islam Mahmud, liberation war affairs minister AKM Mozammel Haque, prime minister’s adviser Moshiur Rahman, state minister for foreign affairs M Shahriar Alam and foreign secretary M Shahidul Haque in the visit.
Hasina and several ministers would stay the Indian President’s House during the tour. She would travel to Ajmer in Rajsthan to pray at the shrine of Khawja Moinuddin Chishti on April 9.
Over 100 businesspersons and a 60-member support team, including a pool of security personnel, would be in India during the visit.