New Delhi: India announced during Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s state visit to New Delhi on Saturday, June 21, that an Indian technical team will evaluate the Teesta River conservation and management project, which has also garnered significant interest from China. Hasina is scheduled to visit China next month.
Just two weeks after attending Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s swearing-in ceremony in Delhi, Hasina returned for a brief visit, marking India as her first foreign trip after the elections, ahead of her scheduled visit to China in July.
Balancing relations with both India and China has been a significant diplomatic challenge for Bangladesh, and this visit was no exception.
Unable to implement a Teesta River sharing pact due to India’s domestic politics, Bangladesh had moved towards ways to conserve water within its territory, particularly to mitigate the effects of the dry season.
According to reports of the Bangladeshi media, the project envisages the construction of a large reservoir to hold surplus run-off water from the monsoons. The project would also mean deepening the riverbed of Teesta as well as constructing wide roads on the embankment and satellite cities.
As early as 2020, China had expressed interest in the Teesta Management and Conservation project, which was estimated at around $980 million. Bangladesh had sought $725 million as a soft loan from China to finance the project, but Beijing had been cautious initially.
In December 2023, Chinese ambassador said at a conference in Dhaka that China had submitted a revised proposal to Bangladesh for phase-by-phase implementation at a lower cost.
According to reports of the Bangladeshi media, the project envisages the construction of a large reservoir to hold surplus run-off water from the monsoons. The project would also mean deepening the riverbed of Teesta, as well as, constructing wide roads on the embankments and satellite cities.
India had been opposed to China securing this major Bangladeshi project, especially since China had already executed several high-profile projects that expanded its influence in the riverine country.
Last month, Indian foreign secretary Vinay Kwatra had visited Bangladesh, when India was in the middle of a marathon election season. During the visit, Kwatra had offered Indian assistance for the Teesta project, as per a Bangladeshi government official.
In his press statement after discussions with Sheikh Hasina, Modi announced that India is staking its claim. “A technical team will soon visit Bangladesh to discuss conservation and management of the Teesta River in Bangladesh,” he said.
The language was ambiguous enough to allow both sides to withdraw from the project, if it was found unfeasible.
The fate of India’s involvement – as well as any role of the West Bengal state government – hinged on the technical team’s assessment. In the stalled Teesta water-sharing agreement, West Bengal chief minister Mamta Banerjee held a de facto ‘veto’ due to her state’s upstream position on the river.
The reservoir in Bangladesh, proposed under the Teesta conservation project, could potentially lead to silting upstream in the river flowing through Indian territory. If it impacted the water flow in West Bengal, the state government could have a say. However, the location of the reservoir could mitigate such impact – and such technical issues would be under the purview of the Indian technical team in talks with their Bangladeshi counterparts.
As Kwatra told reporters on Saturday afternoon, water management is a “very sensitive” matter in Inda-Bangaldesh relations, as both countries are connected through 54 rivers crisscrossing across the border.
It was also announced that both sides will begin discussions for renewing the 1996 Ganga Waters Treaty, whose validity ends in 2026.
Another area of geo-political rivalry – till now largely one-sided for China – is Bangladesh’s defence forces. As per the SIPRI database, China supplied 72% of weapons imported by Bangladesh between 2019 and 2023.
India has been attempting to wean away Bangladesh from its close ties with China in defence matters, but it has been an uphill task due to long-standing Chinese inroads in weapon acquisition
“We had comprehensive discussions on further strengthening our defence cooperation, from defence production to modernisation of armed forces. We have decided to strengthen our cooperation on counter-terrorism, countering radicalism and peaceful management of the border,” said Modi on Saturday.
Overall, 10 agreements were signed, and 13 announcements were made during the visit.
One of the key takeaways for the Bangladesh government was the introduction of the e-medical visa service for Bangladeshi citizens by India.
The Indian high commission in Bangladesh issues the most visas compared to all other diplomatic missions globally. Approximately 20% to 30% of these visas are medical visas, reflecting Bangladeshis’ preference for affordable medical care in India.
In 2023, India had issued around 450,000 medical visas to Bangladeshi nationals, averaging about 1,200 visas per day.
