Dhaka proposes Basin regime approach for sharing river water

NEW DELHI: Bangladesh Foreign Minister Dipu Moni today proposed a Ganges-Brahmaputra-Meghna Basin Regime that will go beyond the boundaries of Bangladesh and India to harness the common rivers water, hydro power and marine resources of the region.

She said the new regime would include India, China, Bhutan, Nepal and Myanmar besides the Bay of Bengal itself.

She said the benefits of such a "basin regime" would be manifold.

"It would enable a holistic approach, rather than a case -by-case approach to cross-border or international issues by facilitating Joint Basin management of the common rivers, harnessing hydro power potential in the region and realising joint undertakings in the sea-regime, including the sea-bed," she said in her speech at the ORF centre here.

"A shared future Basin regime would recognise the divergent needs and priorities of each State on both the existing and emerging principles of international law," Moni.

The Bangladeshi Minister, who arrived here today, said the Basin regime, secured by a Basin instrument, would strive for a higher and better quality of life, materially, economically and socially.

She said a Basin regime would also address issues historically ignored by erstwhile imperial powers, but which are quintessentially important. Such a regime would advance the strengths of each of its component civilisations, three or five thousand years old, she said.