Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and Prime Minister Narendra Modi. (file photo)
Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina appears to be making all efforts to reduce her country’s dependence on China. She has returned to Dhaka after completing her trip to Beijing midway. Hours after cancelling the visit, she said she would give priority to India over China to complete the $1 billion Teesta River Development Project on the Bangladesh side.
Why does Hasina want to deal with India?
Hasina told reporters that China is ready, but I want India to do this project. She gave this response when asked whether she would go with India or China for the Teesta project. She said that both countries want to work on this deal, but she likes to work with India more.
Hasina said that time will decide with which country we do this deal, but if India does this work then we will give it more priority because India has stopped the Teesta waters. She says that in India they can get what they need the most. While China cannot do this.
Why did you reject China’s offer?
Sheikh Hasina was expecting China to grant her a loan of Rs 4 lakh crore. But Bangladesh was shocked to learn about the loan offered by China. China was offering a loan of only Rs 900 crore. Bangladesh was shocked that there was such a gap between China’s words and actions. It is said that Sheikh Hasina was not happy with this and for these reasons ended the yatra before the scheduled time.
According to the Bangladesh Foreign Ministry, Dhaka was not happy with the offer received from China as it expected more. The Bangladesh Prime Minister expected long talks with Xi, but only short ones took place. Apart from this, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi did not even meet Sheikh Hasina. Not only this, the Chinese media also did not pay much attention to Sheikh Hasina’s visit.
Sheikh Hasina came to India to attend PM Modi’s inauguration
Before visiting China, the Bangladesh Prime Minister had been to India. He has visited India twice this year. Both visits took place in June. He attended the swearing-in ceremony of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and subsequently travelled to Delhi on a bilateral state visit. This was the first visit by a foreign leader after Narendra Modi became Prime Minister for the third time.
At the same time, he last visited China in July 2019. Relations between China and Bangladesh have been cordial. But the growing proximity of India and Bangladesh makes China feel uncomfortable. It grants a loan to Bangladesh just to attract it to its side. China is Bangladesh’s largest trading partner. Although before this it was associated with India.
