India shares Bangladesh’s concernns on Rohigya crisis giving rise to radicalism

By Gautam lahiri
Sep 29, 2020
New Delhi/Dhaka: India along with Bagladesh on Tuesday called for early and safe return of Rohingya people to their homeland in Rakhine stateof Myanmar, and agreed with the neighbour that their stay in Bangladesh in a displaced state for long might soon give rise to radicalism.

The issue came up for discussion at the 6th Joint Consultative commission between India –Bangladesh co chaired by the Foreign Ministers of the two countries virtually.

Keeping centenary year of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibar Rahaman in mind, India today went an extra mile to accomodate most of the concerns of the its ‘trusted neighbour’ and initiated some crucial engagement to commemorate 50 years years of the Liberation .

”The two Ministers reiterated the importance of the safe, speedy and sustainable return to Myanmar of the forcibly displaced persons from the Rakhine State of Myanmar, currently being sheltered by Bangladesh. In this regard, Bangladesh Foreign Minister emphasized that unless the problem is resolved quickly, there are possibilities of pockets of radicalism disrupting economic growth, peace and stability in the region and requested India’s leverage, to address the crisis,” said a joint statement at the end of the meeting.

Recognizing that terrorism remains a significant threat to global peace and security, both sides reiterated their strong commitment to eliminate terrorism in all its forms and manifestations.

They also highlighted that given the regional and global economic scenarios following the outbreak of COVID 19, leveraging the resources of the two regional organisations, namely SAARC and BIMSTEC have become more imperative now than ever before.

Bangladesh requested the support of India in strengthening cooperation under IORA to ensure maritime safety and security in the Indian Ocean Region. The countryalso assured to continue playing an active role in the IORA as it assumes Chairmanship of the Association in 2021.

It was decided to hold stalled joint river commission meeting at the ministerial level after a gap of 10 years to finalise the water sharing agreement of 6 common rivers(not within West Bengal) and a series of functions to commemorate the relatioship in a befitting manner.

The two countries also decided that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina will meet probably on the day of Vijay Diwas on 16th December on virtual platform and a number of agreements will be signed, including ones for sharing of river water. Though there was no conclusive word on the Teesta water sharing agreement as West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee has not given her consent till date.

Today India also got an approval for setting up of special economic zones in the area of Mongla and Mirsarai port which is coming up.

Intially after the meeting, Bangladesh Foreign Minsitry issued a suo-moto press release to flag off their conccerns on the relationship. But later in the evening a joint statement was issued which accommodated all the deliberations of the meeting in a transparent manner showing India’s outereach to its close neighbour. A detailed 28-paragraph joint statement illustrates the relationship . The Bangladesh Minister did raise the recent decision of onion export ban which created a lot of problem in their domestic market.

The joint statement says,”the two ministers reiterated to finalise the interim agreement for sharing of the waters of the Teesta. They also underscored the need for early conclusion of Framework of Interim agreement on sharing of waters of six others joint riivers, namely Manu, Muhuri, Khowai, Gumti, Dharla and Dudhkumar, and in this regard, urged to consider convening the ministerial meeting between the two countries.”

It was decided to mount a Bnagabandhu –Bapu digital meuseum In India and Banglades. The concept of the meuseum was explained in the meeting today. The two ministers jointly unveiled a commemorative postal stamps issued by the Bangladesh Government on the occassion of 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi. THe EAM also announced India will lauch a commemorative stamp on Bangabandhu on 16th December 2020, when two PM meet.

The two countries also decided that they will jointly celebrate the Golden Jubilee of the Liberation War and 50th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relation between the two countries, including in third countries too. Apart from this, both countries will hold joint ceremonial military parade on 16th December in Delhi, Kolkata and Dhaka to honour the war veterans, ans revival of historic Mujibnagar (seat of first independent government of Bangladesh in exile) to Kolkata ‘swadhinata sarak”.

–INDIA NEWS STREAM