India, Bangladesh must devise innovative ways of water and border management

In the run up to the Prime Minister’s forthcoming visit to Bangladesh and to mark the celebration of 50 years of Independence of Bangladesh and India-Bangladesh relations, experts suggested innovative ways of water and border management between the two neighbours.

These suggestions were put forward at a dialogue titled “50 Years of Bangladesh: India Bangladesh Relations: New Avenues and the Way Forward” hosted by Asian Confluence, a leading think-tank that has special focus on Bangladesh, Myanmar, Northeast and Indo-Pacific region.

The dialogue focussed on the current state of India-Bangladesh Friendship, which in the word of Sheikh Mujib, the father of the nation is “eternal and flowing”. The Chief Guest at the webinar was Dr. Mashiur Rahman, Economic Advisor to the Prime Minister of Bangladesh who also delivered the keynote address.


In his address Dr Rahman highlighted that India-Bangladesh relation has moved towards a much deeper and border aspect of cooperation and suggested that the next step should be deeper cooperation in water sharing and water resource management amongst other areas.

In his special address Amb. Shahidul Haque, former Foreign Secretary of Bangladesh stressed the need to work for developing a better narrative around shared borders, bringing border killings to zero and suggested innovative projects such as a university located at the border where communities from both countries can be benefitted.

The Asian Confluence also launched a report titled “Bangladesh@50- India-Bangladesh Relations: A Special Journey and Way Forward”. The Report makes an assessment of the multiple facets of bilateral relations and also point out the untapped potential and the importance of quick implementation of policies, projects, and programmes.

During the dialogue, an Indo-Bangladesh Eminent Persons Group was also launched. The panellists comprised Prof Mustafizur Rahman, Distinguished Fellow, Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD), Dhaka; Prof Prabir De, ASEAN-India Center, RIS, New Delhi; Dr Smruti S Pattanaik, Research Fellow, MP-IDSA, New Delhi. The Dialogue was chaired by Rajiv Bhatia, India’s former envoy to Myanmar & South Africa. Director in the Ministry of External Affairs in-charge of Bangladesh, Kartik Pande, delivered a special address.