Teesta in the shadows of India-Bangladesh vaccine talks?

Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla on Wednesday concluded the two-day visit to Bangladesh where he discussed the bilateral cooperation on matters of mutual interests. He also assured Dhaka that New Delhi will provide the COVID vaccine on a priority basis. But, the observer, who keenly follows the relationship between the two countries believes that the agenda of the trip was to counterbalance the Beijing’s decision to grant a nearly $1-billion loan to Dhaka for management of Teesta river, writes senior journalist Aroonim Bhuyan.

New Delhi: Even as Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla concluded a sudden two-day visit to Dhaka Wednesday by giving India’s assurance that Bangladesh will be given priority in primary stage trials for a vaccine against the Covid-19 virus, at least one observer believes that Beijing’s decision to grant a nearly $1-billion loan to Dhaka for management of Teesta river waters may well have been on the trip’s agenda.

“The Teesta waters issue must have been on the agenda of the visit (of Shringla),” the observer, who keenly follows India-Bangladesh relations, told ETV Bharat on the condition of anonymity.

“India might well be telling them that we have concerns,” the person said.

Shringla, who reached Dhaka on Tuesday, his first visit abroad since the pandemic-related restrictions were imposed in March, told the media following a meeting with Bangladesh Foreign Secretary Masud Bin Momen earlier Wednesday that India will give the Covid-19 vaccine which is at stage three level trial to Bangladesh on a priority basis.

“When a vaccine is developed, friends, partners and neighbours will get it without any saying... for us Bangladesh is always a priority,” Shringla was quoted as saying while describing his sudden, short visit as “very satisfactory”.

The Indian Foreign Secretary, who had earlier also served as Indian High Commissioner in Bangladesh, said that India, which produces 60 per cent of the vaccines in the world, has now reached the stage of trying the vaccine with an objective to produce it at a massive scale.

On his part, Momen said that Bangladesh is ready to assist India in starting trials of the vaccine in his country.

“They (India) told us that the vaccine will not only be made for India only, but it will also be made available for Bangladesh in the primary stage,” he stated.

Following the outbreak of the pandemic, India had provided personal protective equipment (PPE), other health equipment and tablets to Bangladesh.

On Tuesday, Momen had said that Bangladesh was seeking access to all available vaccines, whether it be Chinese, Russian or American.

On Tuesday night, after his arrival in Dhaka, Shringla had called on Bangladesh Prime Minister carrying a personal message from her Indian counterpart Narendra Modi to further deepen the bilateral ties between the two South Asian neighbours.

Following Wednesday’s meeting with Momen, Shringla, referring to his hour-long meeting with Hasina, said that Modi sent him to Dhaka to carry forward the excellent India-Bangladesh relations even during the pandemic.

“Reason I came here is that our prime minister felt during Covid time there is not much contact, but the relationship must continue,” he said.

“We must continue to move forward towards our strong bilateral relations and I came primarily to look at that point."

India is a major development aid partner of Bangladesh and the two sides are also working on major connectivity projects besides boosting people-to-people ties.

The two countries have also chalked out a series of programmes in 2020-21 to celebrate Mujib Borsho, the centennial birth anniversary of the founding leader of Bangladesh, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. Besides this, both India and Bangladesh will celebrate 50 years of diplomatic relations next year.

However, though the focus of Shringla’s visit has been on cooperation between the two sides on the development of the Covid-19 vaccine, there have been wide speculations about his sudden visit in the light of Beijing’s growing influence over Bangladesh amid a border conflict between India and China in Ladakh.

Bangladesh's state medical research agency had earlier approved a third-phase trial of a potential Covid-19 vaccine developed by China's Sinovac Biotech Ltd. But the approval has now been put on hold.

The latest headache for New Delhi is Beijing's decision to extend a loan of nearly $1 billion to Dhaka for management of Teesta river waters. This is the first time that China has become involved in river water management in that South Asian nation.

Though Bangladesh is one of the closest neighbours of India, sharing of the Teesta river waters has remained a most contentious issue between the two sides for decades.

India and Bangladesh nearly signed a Teesta water-sharing agreement during then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's visit to Dhaka in 2011 but it was shelved in the last moment due to resistance from West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.

The Teesta river originates in the eastern Himalayas and flows through the Indian states of Sikkim and West Bengal before entering Bangladesh. Though the river is a source of floods in the plains of Bangladesh, it remains dry for around two months during the winter.

Bangladesh has sought an 'equitable' distribution of Teesta waters from India, on the lines of the Ganga Water Treaty of 1996 - an agreement to share surface waters at the Farakka Barrage near their mutual border - but to no avail.

With individual Indian states having significant influence over transboundary agreements, West Bengal has refrained from endorsing the Teesta deal, thereby impeding foreign policymaking.

Now, Bangladesh has come up with the Teesta River Comprehensive Management and Restoration project in the greater Rangpur region and sought an $853-million loan from China to which Beijing has agreed. The project, worth $983 million, envisages the creation of a huge reservoir to store the waters of the Teesta.

“If India feels that it (the China-financed Teesta waters project) will have adverse consequences for our nation’s security interests, then New Delhi will have to consider counter-measures,” the observer said.

China is also fast-tracking defence projects in India's eastern neighbour, including developing the BNS Sheikh Hasina submarine base in Pekua, Cox's Bazar, and delivering two submarines to the Bangladesh Navy.

What is another issue of concern for New Delhi is that Prime Minister Hasina has also accepted Chinese President Xi Jinping's pet Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). India has refused to be a part of the BRI as one of its key projects, the China Pakistan Economic Corridor, passes through Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.

Though India enjoys the closest relationship with Bangladesh among South Asian countries, Dhaka has agreed to help China in its maritime management plans in the Bay of Bengal.

“I can only say that China’s influence over Bangladesh is growing and Dhaka is playing the China card now,” the person speaking to ETV Bharat said.