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Bangladesh offers India access to North-East through Chittagong |
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While bus service talks with Pakistan have hit a roadblock, India appears to be on the verge of a breakthrough with Bangladesh on three links. Bangladesh has said it “was willing” to allow India the use of Chittagong port to link its northeastern states, a much-debated gas pipeline from Myanmar to Bengal, and open up a disused railway line between Dhaka and Sealdah. But the “details have to be worked out”.
Bangladesh Finance Minister Saiful Rahman who was on a visit to attend the South Asian Business Summit said in an interview, his country was willing to go with all the three projects, but details have to be worked out. About the natural gas pipeline from Myanmar to India through Bangladesh, he said his country was favourably considering the proposal. According to Rahman, while royalty was one of the options Dhaka was looking at, there could also be joint ventures involving India, Myanmar and Bangladesh for the proposed pipeline.
Analysts note that this is perhaps the first time that a Bangladesh Minister has spoken of allowing India all three linkages, especially a link through Chittagong, Rahman is the seniormost minister in Begum Khaleda Zia’s Cabinet. However, say catch lies in the fine print. The royalty for use of pipelines and roads has to be worked out, and local sentiments have to be satisfied while allowing India access to ports as well as land over which gaspipes are laid. “Though we haven’t spoken about it, every nation charges a fee for allowing a transit pipeline”, Rahman said. India has long been seeking a passage through Bangladeshi territory to its landlocked northeastern states, rail links with Dhaka to help boost trade, and permission to lay a pipeline to bring gas from fields in Myanmar in which Indian oil companies have invested. Successive Bangladeshi governments have stalled these demands. Dhaka strategists feel the route could impinge on the South Asian nation’s security.
India, stifled by Bangladesh’s attitude in the past over opening up Chittagong port, has already started talks with Myanmar to use its Sitwe port in Arakan province as an alternative to Chittagong. So New Delhi may not be as keen as it was to use the deep-sea port. Rahman’s statement comes despite past tension between the two governments over Indian demands for shutting down North-east insurgent camps, which Dhaka insists do not exist. Rahman – who held a meeting with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh – said India, too, should listen to the “decades-old Bangladesh demands for a trade passage to Nepal” through north Bengal, and allow all Bangladeshi goods duty-free entry. “We want real free trade. Not through lists”, the Minister said on the sidelines of a business summit.
A big gap in the trade balance between the two countries has for long been a thorn in bilateral relations. India had earlier allowed 18 Bangladeshi products with over 150 subcategories duty-free status. Most of these products, based on a list of 25 forwarded by the Bangladesh Government, were later found to be inconsequential.
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