Corridor, transit, and connectivity
We find this incredible that ministers can think that a bilateral transit or a corridor is only an economic issue and is beyond any gamut of political considerations. We, as a nation, are surely headed for a disaster if this mindset persists. We urge our respected Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to intervene and to request her ministers to get up-to-date on issues of political economy and regional cooperation. We are speechless to see that currently our ministers are speaking along the same line of argument that is being advocated by the Honourable High Commissioner of India on bilateral corridor/transit, purely from an economic perspective without any political consideration whatsoever. While we surely need a friendly relation with India, we must not forget that on this particular issue, we are two contending parties engaged in a sharp diplomatic discourse, trying to maximize our respective country's interests.
Having said this, we must also clarify that we are not at all against a very well defined "regional connectivity" in the changing context of world trade and politics. However, this "connectivity" must have a regional perspective, as promoted by ESCAP and should, at the minimum, be a comprehensive single package involving (a) India-Bangladesh-India corridor and (b) Bangladesh-India-Nepal and Bangladesh-India-Bhutan transits. Unless the above two come under the purview of a single regional package of connectivity, citizens of this country will oppose a stand alone "India-Bangladesh-India Corridor". Our policy makers (including the honourable parliament members) must not fail to recognize that any discussion on "connectivity" must involve India, Bangladesh, Nepal, and Bhutan with a single regional framework of negotiation.
So the ministers and the party in power in Bangladesh cannot even consider discussing India-Bangladesh-India corridor without tagging this issue with Bangladesh's connectivity (transit) with Nepal and Bhutan within the same package to be drafted in one go.
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