Bangladesh PM Sheikh Hasina is likely to be in India from Dec 17-20

Simran Sodhi

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, December 7

India and Bangladesh are looking to upgrade their security and defence ties during the visit of Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to India later this month. Bangladesh Navy Chief Admiral Muhammad Farid Habib reached Delhi today to prepare the ground for defence agreements likely to be signed during Hasina’s visit.The Bangladesh Navy Chief’s visit follows that of Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar to Dhaka a week ago to augment ties. Though the dates for Hasina’s visit are yet to be announced officially, it is learnt she would be in India from December 17-20.For India, the biggest worry in managing this bilateral comes from China, which is increasing its footprint in Dhaka. Bangladesh recently purchased two submarines from China for an estimated USD 203 million. Hasina recently announced her intention to modernise the country’s Navy and the visit of the Navy Chief this week to India could be understood in the same context.In October, en route to Goa to attend the BRICS Summit, Chinese President Xi Jinping made a stopover in Dhaka and signed off loans worth USD 24 billion. Dhaka has traditionally been a close ally of India and any increase in Dhaka-Beijing defence ties is bound to make Delhi jittery. A UN tribunal has settled Bangladesh’s long-standing maritime border disputes with neighbours Myanmar and India giving Dhaka the leeway to now invite bids from multinational firms to explore for oil in the Bay of Bengal. To that end, Bangladesh now wants to modernise its Navy and protect the resource-rich Bay of Bengal.Hasina is likely to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi on December 18 and after holding delegation-level talks, a defence pact is likely to be signed. The one major irritant today in the Delhi-Dhaka relationship remains the Teesta water agreement, which will be discussed between the two leaders, though a resolution is not expected.