10.3 India – Bangladesh Relations · Part 5

also reduce congestion through the Siliguri’s ‘Chicken’s Neck’ corridor. ™ Connectivity is an issue of mutual interest as these initiatives on passenger and goods trains will be of benefit to both Bangladesh and northeast India. ™ Dhaka also has the central role in shaping the future of sub-regional cooperation with Bhutan, Burma, India and Nepal. It is also a land bridge to East Asia and the fulcrum of a future Bay of Bengal community. ™ However, the most important issue in contemporary Asian geopolitics is transit and connectivity. In when Chinese President Xi Jinping visited Bangladesh, it agreed to join the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). ™ China is already investing in a number of infrastructure projects in the country including the deep sea port at Chittagong. It is likely that these projects will now be subsumed under the BRI project which is the matter of concern for India. Energy Cooperation ™ Energy cooperation between the two sides has also shown a lot of positivity with Indian state Tripura supplying a total of MW of power to Bangladesh in addition to the MW the country is receiving from West Bengal since . ™ Bangladesh has sought extra MW electricity from India to solve its power crisis, and will be likely on the negotiating table. Defence Cooperation ™ There are talks that a defence treaty is to be signed between India and Bangladesh, it will be a long-term defence deal that will allow for increased defence cooperation, information sharing, joint exercises, training and so on. However, India needs to figure out where it can meet Bangladesh’s security concerns, considering Bangladesh’s largest defence partner is China. ™ Expanding security cooperation with India could only enhance Dhaka’s global leverage. For India, a strong partnership with Bangladesh will help boost the prospects of peace and prosperity in the eastern subcontinent. ™ Defence deal between the two nations on the basis of sovereign equality and geopolitical realities will take us a long way ahead. The India-Bangladesh relations can be summarised as hanging on three ‘T’s – . Tackling Terrorism, . Trade