India, B’desh vow to boost ties, step up coast security
NRC internal matter, process is court-monitored, Dhaka told
India and Bangladesh on Saturday unveiled a slew of measures, including a pact for setting up a joint coastal surveillance radar system and a project for bulk import of cooking gas to Tripura, aimed at elevating bilateral ties to an “irreversible partnership” based on enhanced connectivity and trade.
Following a meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Bangladesh counterpart Sheikh Hasina, who is on a visit to India, the two sides signed seven pacts and launched three developmental projects. They also agreed on several steps to boost connectivity through air and rail services and waterways, and reiterated their commitment to eliminating terrorism in all its forms.
The Bangladeshi side raised its concerns over the implementation of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Assam, which is aimed at identifying genuine Indian citizens and weeding out illegal aliens. The Indian side said that it was a Supreme Court-mandated process whose final outcome is awaited.
According to a joint statement, Modi and Hasina also agreed on the need for greater efforts for the “safe, speedy and sustainable repatriation” of hundreds of thousands of Rohingya refugees who fled violence in Myanmar and took refuge in Bangladesh. They agreed that these efforts should include improving the security situation and socio-economic conditions in Myanmar’s Rakhine state.
“India prioritises its partnership with Bangladesh. We are proud that the India-Bangladesh relationship is a great example of cooperation between two friendly neighbours,” Modi said at a media interaction.
Hasina, visiting India for the first time since her re-election last year, said cooperation in fields such as security, business, energy, connectivity, education and culture had been greatly increased in the past decade and the two sides were looking at new areas such as the blue economy -ocean resources -- and peaceful uses of nuclear power.
An Indian official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the country’s primary objective was “continuous progress in the relationship towards making it irreversible”. India, he said, wants to take its “neighbourhood first” policy forward by extending the benefits of a better quality of life to neighbours such as Bangladesh. The joint statement noted both premiers agreed to “ensure that this irreversible partnership enhances the legacy that started with the Great War of Liberation of Bangladesh”.
The proposal for the creation of a coastal surveillance radar system in Bangladesh, first made by India in 2015, was signed at the last minute after the tackling of sensitive issues, people familiar with the developments said. India will help establish surveillance radar and control facilities with back-up infrastructure by working with the Bangladesh Coast Guard, they said.
The final configuration of up to 20 radar facilities and the commercial part of agreement will be taken up in further negotiations.
NEW DELHI : Dhaka takes comfort from assurances by New Delhi that the implementation of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Assam is an internal matter but will keep a close eye on developments, Bangladesh foreign secretary Shahidul Haque said on Saturday.
The NRC issue was raised by the Bangladeshi side during the meeting here between visiting Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and her Indian counterpart Narendra Modi, and it also figured briefly during their talks on the margins of the UN General Assembly in New York last month.
“Prime Minister Modi has explained to Prime Minister Hasina the process that India has put up, in terms of making sure that everybody is eventually included in this, and we were told that this is an internal matter of India,” Haque told a news briefing.
“Our relationship is currently the best of the best, and the relationship is extremely warm and friendly but at the same time, we are keeping our eyes quite open...,” he said, adding Bangladesh wasn’t currently worried about the issue.
Ever since some 1.9 million people were left out of the final version of the NRC in Assam in August, Bangladesh has been concerned by statements by some BJP leaders that these people would be deported.
The Bangladeshi side has pointed to the divergence between assurances given by Modi and external affairs minister S Jaishankar, and public remarks by home minister Amit Shah, who has said every infiltrator will be driven out.
People familiar with discussions at Saturday’s meeting said the Bangladeshi side raised the NRC issue and sought an update on the process.
The Indian side pointed out it was an “ongoing process” mandated and directed by the Supreme Court, and whose final outcome was awaited, the people said.
“They asked us what is happening and what is going to happen. We said we have to see where the process leads to,” said a person who declined to be identified.
Both sides appeared keen to play down the matter, with the people cited above saying the Indian and Bangladeshi delegations discussed the NRC issue and moved on.
Haque said: “I think we shouldn’t make a crisis out of nothing at this stage, and we should be able to wait and see.”
The Bangladeshi foreign secretary, who has served with the International Organization for Migration (IOM), said the movement of people is a global issue and cited the example of Mexico and the US while pointing out there have “always been issues regarding mobility between neighbouring states”.