Constructive engagement with India

What makes us say so is the firm prospect for multi-layered contacts and engaging dialogues between India and Bangladesh that can now be envisioned by virtue of the Indian External Affairs Minister Natwar Singh's trip to Dhaka.

The dynamics of a series of high level contacts are set to begin with Bangladesh Prime Minister Begum Khaleda Zia visiting New Delhi on the invitation of her Indian counterpart Manmohan Singh sometime soon. The Indian PM is likely to reciprocate this by visiting Bangladesh in response to Begum Zia's standing invitation. All this fits well into the overall ambience of Saarc summit scheduled for November.

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The visits of Indian Water Resources Minister Priya Ranjan Das Munshi, Commerce and Industries Minister Kamal Nath and Petroleum and Mineral Resources Minister Mani Shankar Aiyar are slated over the next three months in rapid succession. JRC and JEC meetings are on the anvil, and interspersed with such ministerial and expert level contacts would be, of course, the different secretaries level talks.

Both sides have agreed to disagree, which is the first major step towards addressing thorny bilateral issues in the full knowledge of each other's perceptions and positions. They have also decided to iron out their differences and bridge the gaps in their positions through discussion and dialogue. This is the most important laudable accord of intentions they have reached in Dhaka.

All potential risks to miscommunication and disorientation need now to be consciously and scrupulously avoided by both sides.

Furthermore, the fact that an invigorating phase of interactions has been planned could create a subjective impression of a lot being done with perhaps a slack setting in, unwittingly, down the line. Thus there must be a gripping commitment on both sides to the imperative necessity for moving forward on the timetable for dialogues.

If India could put confidence-building measures in place with Pakistan, its nuclear rival, we see no reason why Bangladesh's outstanding problems with India can not be put behind.