Ties with India won’t be impeded due to some unresolved issues: Foreign adviser
Published :
Updated :
For all latest news, follow The Financial Express Google News channel.
Foreign adviser Md Touhid Hossain on Sunday said certain unresolved bilateral issues will not impede bilateral ties between Bangladesh and India.
Unresolved issues like Teesta water sharing and border killings — will not stall Dhaka’s push for the return of wanted political figures, he said while speaking at a discussion organised by the Diplomatic Correspondents Association, Bangladesh (DCAB) at the National Press Club.
“These matters will continue alongside the process of seeking Sheikh Hasina’s return,” the adviser told reporters.
“One does not depend on the other. Our national interests are our priority, and we will keep working to achieve them” he stated.
“How long it will take, I cannot say. But we want them returned so that court verdicts can be executed,” Hossain said on Hasina extradition issue.
He added that he had no official information on former home minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal, who is believed to be in India.
“We all know he is there, but India has never officially informed us. And I have no information that extradition will start with him.”
In response to another question, he said, “There was a warm relationship with India. But can you swear that the people of Bangladesh were very satisfied with that relationship, with the way it functioned? To me, and to many others, it seemed that the warmth existed between the two governments. The role of the public in that relationship was very limited. There were many grievances, yet the then government did not take them into consideration”.
“Everyone in Bangladesh felt resentment over issues like the Teesta water-sharing and border killings. During the 15 years of this so-called warm relationship, did that government manage to solve even one of these two issues? In other words, external warmth means nothing. What matters is whether our national interests were being protected — and clearly they were not,” the adviser added.
“So I would not say that there was a good relationship with India. There was a relationship — and it was deep — but it existed between the governments.”
About the Rohingya refugee issue, the foreign adviser said he had warned, when the first influx began, that Bangladesh should prepare for a minimum 15-year crisis — a caution many dismissed at the time.
“When they arrived, people assumed they would return in a year or two,” he said. “But I said this is both a humanitarian and a security issue. And, unfortunately, my prediction has proved correct.”
Bangladesh is still trying to negotiate a viable repatriation roadmap, but geopolitical interests continue to complicate the process, he said.
“I don’t want to blame neighbouring countries — they are acting according to their interests. Our job is to persuade them,” Hossain noted.
He warned that the long-term confinement of hundreds of thousands of young Rohingya poses serious dangers.
“This is a ticking time bomb. You cannot keep 500,000 to 700,000 young people fenced in forever — they will not accept it. They are already being drawn into criminal networks. The very people who expelled them are now pushing drugs across the border for small sums of money. They are the real beneficiaries of this crisis.”
“I don’t know how this will be resolved,” he added. “But it is becoming a major problem.”