Delivering the 4th RK Mishra Memorial Lecture at Observer Research Foundation here on Thursday, the Bangladesh Foreign Minister Dr Dipu Moni proposed a vision strategy for what is called “the ever natural Ganges (Ganga)-Brahmaputra-Meghna Basin regime.”

“Naturally, beyond the boundaries of India and Bangladesh, the Basin regime would include all other basin sovereign states, namely Bhutan, Nepal, Myanmar and in the upper reaches, China, as well as the Bay of Bengal itself. Above it would be air spaces and beyond the delta, the subterranean regions below the sea – rich in minerals and other marine resources,” she said.

In envisaging the Basin regime, the proposed object is to pool together natural economies, cultures, ecology, riverine connectivity, contiguity of land, concourse among people of the region , a natural climatic integrity and an inevitable future linking these features.

Clarfying this Dr Moni said “What existed before the modern State came into being and when passports or visas were not necessary, the Human and People’s Order had primacy.”

Dr Moni’s Basin regime vision is a modification over the existing BIMSTEC grouping. It excludes Thailand and Sri Lanka. It does not preclude a bilateral order with a larger India, but a regional order. It excludes interfaces with other regional arrangements such as ASEAN or ASEM or multilateral organisations created for historical reasons, like the Commonwealth, the OIC, the Non-Aligned Movement. The vision of a Ganges-Brahmaputra-Meghna Basin undermine the global order of which all of its member nations are a part.

Describing the benefits of cooperation in the Basin regime, she said : “Additionally, such a regime would allow for the creation of Food Banks, Buffer Stocks of Commodities and natural resources and strengthen information and technology data bases. There would be more self-evident features.”

She called for the “people’s will” , “will of the moment” and the “will of the government in office” to achieve the vision goal suggested by her.