Bangladesh suggests that China be called for Teesta talks

India and Bangladesh will sign a “document” on defence cooperation during Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s visit to New Delhi on April 8, her senior adviser, H.T. Imam, said here on Wednesday.

The comments were the first official confirmation that the agreement, which has faced some opposition in Bangladesh, has been finalised, even as several officials said they still hoped for a “breakthrough” on the Teesta water sharing agreement, with Mr. Imam suggesting China be included in the talks.

However, the defence agreement would not amount to a treaty or a defence pact “in the traditional sense” that India has been keen on, but more on the lines of a memorandum of understanding (MoU) for a fixed time period. “It would be more about defence cooperation, which, as a matter of fact, we have been doing for some time,” Mr. Imam told presspersons.

Asked for further details of the defence agreement, he said, “If there are threats to the security of India or Bangladesh, then naturally we will cooperate with each other.” However, he declined to comment on whether joint defence production would be part of it, or how much maritime cooperation it would involve, stressing that much of the collaboration would deal with “information, advice and counter-insurgency expertise on terror”.

Mr. Imam’s comments came after months of speculation, ever since the then Defence Minister, Manohar Parrikar, visited Dhaka in December 2016, and is understood to have pitched for the cooperation document.

With details of the big-ticket announcement still being wrapped up, Mr. Imam said the visit of Army Chief General Bipin Rawat to Dhaka on March 31 would be significant. Indian High Commissioner to Bangladesh Harsh Shringla is in Delhi, fine-tuning the more than 40 agreements expected to be announced during Ms. Hasina’s four-day visit to Delhi from April 7.

‘A dangerous venture’

In the past few weeks, the Opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) of former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia has stepped up its campaign against the announcement of a defence treaty, alleging that it would turn Bangladesh’s defence system into an “extension of India’s”.

“Signing any defence deal or Memorandum of Understanding with India will be a dangerous venture for Bangladesh. India wants to sell its military hardware and arms to us for 25 years,” BNP general secretary Ruhul Rizvi said, a charge Mr. Imam rejected.

Opposition parties as well as most Bangladeshi newspapers have been pressing for some movement on the Teesta issue, which has been stalled by West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s objections.

“I wonder if we can approach the upper riparian region of Teesta and Brahmaputra … that is China. China should also be brought into the picture and we should speak with them,” Mr. Imam said, clarifying that this was his “personal opinion only” that had yet to be raised with India.

He conceded, however, that India’s traditional policy was to discuss all such issues bilaterally and not in such a trilateral format.

Bringing Mamata in

With no movement on Teesta talks so far, the Bangladesh government had pinned its hopes on a possible meeting between Sheikh Hasina and Ms. Banerjee during the PM’s stay at the Rashtrapati Bhavan.

“I think it is significant that PM Hasina will be staying at Rashtrapati Bhavan and I know personally that Ms. Banerjee’s relations with the President of India are very cordial,” Mr. Imam replied to a question from The Hindu about why the government is hopeful.

Indian officials remained cautious on the issue, however, adding that an agreement on Teesta was “off the table” for now. “There will be a lot of deliverables on both sides,” an MEA official who did not wish to be identified said, adding, “Whether Teesta is there or not, the visit itself is significant.”

(The reporter travelled to Dhaka as part of a media team hosted by Bangladesh ahead of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s visit)