New Delhi: The opening of a land port facility by Home Minister Amit Shah in West Bengal to boost trade ties with Bangladesh is yet another instance of how New Delhi is maintaining ties with neighbouring countries that have been going through political turmoil in recent times.
Shah inaugurated a new passenger terminal building and a Maitri Dwar in Petrapole, West Bengal, built at a cost of Rs 487 crore by the Land Port Authority of India (LPAI) on Sunday.
The passenger terminal building, built at a cost of approximately Rs 500 crore and covering an area of nearly 60,000 square metres, has the capacity to handle 25,000 passengers daily. Shah said that this will greatly boost medical and educational tourism. He expressed the view that this initiative by the LPAI will secure India’s borders and create a conducive environment for development. The Maitri Dwar has been constructed at a cost of Rs 6 crore which will allow smooth passage of transport with handling capacity of over 600-700 trucks per day.
The Home Minister stated that 70 percent of the total trade between India and Bangladesh through land routes occurs via Petrapole. He noted that when Prime Minister Narendra Modi initiated this in 2016-17, the trade volume was Rs 18,000 crore, which has increased to Rs 30,500 crore in 2023-24, reflecting a 64 percent growth.
The opening of the new land port facility comes at a time when bilateral ties between India and Bangladesh are poised delicately following a regime change in Dhaka earlier this year. On August 5, Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, considered a close friend of India, was ousted from power following a mass uprising in protest against what people called her authoritarian style of governance. Three days later, Bangladesh President Mohammad Shahabuddin installed an interim government headed by Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus.
With Hasina taking refuge in India, relations between the two South Asian neighbours have since been tense with no high-level visit taking place from either side till now. Meanwhile, the International Crimes Tribunal (ICT) of Bangladesh has ordered the extradition of Hasina and many of her associates who fled the country after the upheaval in August.
It is in light of all this that the opening of the land port in Petrapole assumes significance. By doing so, New Delhi has sent the signal that it is ready to keep engaging with its neighbours despite changes in government.
'A game-changer in India-Bangladesh trade'
“The inauguration of the land port in Petrapole is a game-changer in terms of trade between India and Bangladesh,” Prabir De, Professor at the New Delhi-based Research and Information System for Developing Nations (RIS) think tank, told ETV Bharat. “The project will have a huge impact on India’s Neighburhood First Policy. It sends the signal that India is friendly with Bangladesh despite the change in government.”
De said that India-Bangladesh trade stood at $14 billion in 2023-24 out of which India’s exports amounted to $13 bllion. Most of this trade is routed through the Petrapole-Benapole route. Benapole is on the Bangladesh side of the border.
“Around 600,000 people use this route annually,” De said. “India has done its part. The new facility will be used mostly by people from Bangladesh. Now, it is Bangladesh’s turn to upgrade the facility in Benapole. Then it will be beneficial for both the countries.”
According to Bangladeshi academic and political observer Sharin Shajahan Naomi, India-Bangladesh trade relations have always been good. “It should always be strong no matter what the political situation is,” Naomi told ETV Bharat over phone from Dhaka. “Many people will get employment at the newly inaugurated Maitri Dwar. People with low income will be benefited. It will have a positive impact on the India-Bangladesh relationship in all aspects.”
Describing Sunday’s development as a very good starting point for renewing the India-Bangladesh ties after the change in government in her country, she said that this is the way to cut across all political divisions.
“Neighbourly relations should be like this,” Naomi said. According to De, neighbours depend on India for their trade and people’s travel through land routes.
“This (opening of the Petropole land port) is a signal that there is no permanent enemy or friend in this geopolitical world,” he said.
In this connection, De also referred to civil war-torn Myanmar. “In Myanmar, India cannot play any role in domestic issues,” he said. “However, India has always been there for Myanmar when it comes to humanitarian assistance, food security or disaster relief. It is always India that is the first responder, not China.”
K Yhome, Fellow at the Shillong-based Asian Confluence think tank, said that since the beginning of the third term of the Modi government, several of India’s neighbours have seen political turbulence.
“Since the new government does not have absolute majority, it is taking some time to continue with the policies of the second Modi government,” Yhome said. “The new Modi government is trying to pick up from where it left in the last term as far as New Delhi’s Neighbourhood First Policy is concerned. What the new Modi government is encountering is very different from what it encountered in the last two terms.”
Expressing the view that the new Modi government needs some time to get a sense of the political dynamics in the neighbourhood, Yhome nevertheless pointed out that it is India that came to the aid of these countries when hit by economic crises following the COVID-19 pandemic. One such example is Sri Lanka which went through a major financial crisis in 2022.
He also stressed on the importance of India’s Neighbourhood First Policy and Act East Policy given China’s bid to play a bigger role in countries like Nepal, Sri Lanka, Myanmar and the Maldives.
In this connection, he referred to Modi’s recent visit to Laos to attend this year’s Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)-India Summit and External Affaits Minister S Jaishankar’s visit to Sri Lanka where a new president was elected in September.
“India is trying to maintain its foothold in the neighbouring countries to offset the influence of other external powers,” Yhome said. “The government is trying to send the message that it respects the political outcomes in these countries and is willing to engage with whoever is in power.”
