Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s return to power for a second successive term with a clear electoral mandate augurs continuity and movement forward in bilateral relations that has seen a remarkable transformation in the last five years. The ties have not only deepened in existing areas of cooperation like connectivity, infrastructure, security and trade but branched out to newer areas of cooperation including nuclear energy, defence, space and blue economy. At the heart of this upswing in India-Bangladesh ties lies the strong chemistry built up between Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and Modi who have met each other a number of times and undertook two bilateral visits to New Delhi and Dhaka.
It was Modi, an advocate of India’s “neighbourhood first”policy, who had said a couple of years ago during a meeting with Hasina that protocol should not come in the way of more frequent face-to-face interactions among South Asian leaders or their picking up the phones and speaking to each other. It was in this spirit that one must see the telephonic conversation between Hasina and Modi soon after the latter’s election victory on May 23. No doubt the election results provided the trigger for the Bangladesh Prime Minister to call up her Indian counterpart but its significance goes beyond that for two reasons.
One, the Indian Ministry of External Affairs in its statement on the Hasina-Modi telephonic talk chose to put it on record that the Bangladesh Premier was among the first foreign leaders to congratulate Modi and also mentioned the time of the phone call initiated by Hasina. New Delhi said that the fact that Hasina became one of the first foreign leaders to felicitate Modi reflected “the extraordinarily close and cordial ties between India and Bangladesh and the excellent rapport that the two leaders enjoy.”
Beside the personal touch to the gesture of phone call, Hasina also sent a congratulatory message to Modi congratulating him on the resounding election victory and his dynamic leadership. Hasina also took the opportunity to lay out the basic underpinnings of the multi-facted India-Bangladesh ties--genuine goodwill, mutual trust and respect.
Prime Narendra Modi’s return to power
for a second successive term with a clear
electoral mandate augurs continuity and
movement forward in bilateral relations
that has seen a remarkable transformation
in the last five years
She also recalled in the same breath India’s critical role in support of Bangladesh’s war of independence under the leadership of the Father of the Nation, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman which she described as a “watershed moment” in the relations. The general perception in Bangladesh about the BJP notwithstanding, Hasina displayed statesmanship in reaching out to Modi in the last five years in order to secure her country’s interests and made efforts to plug the rising Bangladesh economy into an equally growing Indian economy in order to create a win-win situation for both sides.
With Modi having come back in power with a bigger mandate, there are expectations of another summit-level visit by the Indian Prime Minister to Bangladesh after Hasina’s visit to India in April, 2017 reciprocating the Indian Prime Minister’s first official tour to Dhaka in June, 2015. In fact, in her message to Modi, Hasina expressed keenness about Modi’s visit to Bangladesh. Both Hasina and Modi are fresh from massive backing of their voters having won national elections in their respective countries within a gap of four months and this provided a good opportunity to further step up the momentum in bilateral relations.
Hasina herself pointed to this in her message to Modi. “I strongly believe that with the renewed mandate given to both of us by our respective peoples, Bangladesh-India ties, which have already been termed as a role model of good neighbourliness, will be further consolidated and our relations will scale newer heights,” she said. She also signaled her invitation to Modi to visit Bangladesh by saying “I look forward to welcoming Your Excellency in Bangladesh at your convenience.”
According to the Indian Foreign Ministry statement, the “two leaders agreed to identify dates for a meeting at the earliest to resume work in service of the bilateral relationship.”
India also said that during Hasina’s conversation with Modi, “the two leaders pledged to continue to raise the India-Bangladesh relationship to “unprecedented new heights.” This required rapidly completing on-going plans for deepening the bilateral partnership in security trade, transportation, energy and people-to-people contacts within the next three years which would have specific significance in view of the centenary of the birth of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman in 2020 and the 50th anniversary of Bangladesh's Liberation in 2021. Clearly, the immense symbolisms of the two events are not lost on New Delhi and Dhaka and required the two countries to add something substantial to their bilateral cooperation.
From Bangladesh’s point of view, the biggest expectation from India would be the much-delayed accord on the sharing of waters of Teesta River, a life-line for northern part of that country. During Hasina’s last Delhi visit, Modi had assured her that it would be done during his tenure as Prime Minister. With the BJP’s stunning performance in parliamentary polls in West Bengal, particularly northern part of Bengal and Chief Minister Mamata Bannerjee apparently under pressure, this could be the right time for the Modi government to give a fresh nudge to the Mamata government to agree to the accord.
Defence cooperation is another key area of bilateral cooperation awaiting to be tapped for movement forward after the two sides signed a Memorandum of Understanding in April 2017 under which India announced a 500 million dollar line of credit to Bangladesh. Besides, the projects envisaged under India’s eight billion dollar soft loan to Bangladesh need to be pushed more aggressively because most of them touch the day-to-day lives of ordinary people in Bangladesh. Since both Hasina and Modi are in the first of their fresh terms, time is of essence to move ahead with the new initiatives.
Arunabha Bhattacharya is a Foreign Policy Researcher based in New Delhi.
