The Hindu : India for new approach to relations with Bangladesh

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Feb 14, 2003

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India for new approach to relations with Bangladesh

By Our Diplomatic Correspondent

NEW DELHI FEB. 13. The Bangladesh Foreign Minister, M. Morshed Khan, arrived here today for talks with his Indian counterpart, Yashwant Sinha, on Friday and meetings with the Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee, and the Deputy Prime Minister, L.K. Advani, on Saturday.

Mr. Khan's visit comes at a tense time in bilateral relations, with a six-day stand-off in the Coochbehar sector of the border ending earlier this month.

Senior officials said that India hoped for a fresh approach and made it clear that it was not interested in sharpening the tensions with Bangladesh. The visit was not in the nature of an inquisition and there was no desire on India's part to put Mr. Khan (who is in Ajmer today) "on the mat," they stressed.

However, it was not good for Bangladesh to be in "denial mode" as far as bilateral issues were concerned. Bangladesh should speak to India constructively on the issue of illegal immigration and the operations of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) Directorate and on the presence of terrorist camps in its territory.

India gave extensive documentation to Bangladesh in December 2001 about the presence of 99 terrorist camps and 88 insurgents on its territory. Dhaka, the officials claimed, had never responded in a credible and constructive manner.

On the issue of Al-Qaeda operatives in Bangladesh, the officials said this was in the realm of speculation and the reports about the presence of these terrorists required more investigation. "Private demarches" were not eliciting any response from Dhaka, they pointed out.

Whatever the estimates of Bangladeshis living illegally in India — it was put at between 12 million and 15 million — it was impossible to identify and evict them. Bangladesh needed to recognise the problem and contain it. Way back in 1992, the then and current Bangladesh Prime Minister, Khaleda Zia, had admitted in a joint communique that illegal immigration was a problem. Ten years later, Bangladesh could not say there was no problem, the officials said. Asked whether it was Dhaka's "state policy" to infiltrate people, they said it was not a conscious policy but an apparent decision not to address the issue.

Referring to Bangladesh's concerns over its trade deficit with India, he said India had already extended 50 to 75 per cent duty concession on 110 out of 121 items. However, on transit rights, Dhaka had been unwilling to move. The issue was not simply that of trade imbalance.

A spokesman for the Bangladesh High Commission told this correspondent that all issues would come up for discussions. "We don't want to turn the clock back. We want good relations with India,'' he said.

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