Wen Jiabao and his team of ministers and bureaucrats were extremely focused. They were interested in Bangladesh’s oil and gas sector, wanted a direct road and rail link between China and Bangladesh, connecting the capital city of Dhaka and the Port of Chittagong along the Bay of Bengal. Military cooperation between the two countries featured prominently in the agenda. Bangladesh wanted and got a Chinese assurance to help build a remote sensing Bangladeshi satellite and technology co-operation.

Wen Jiabao offered to construct a large fertilizer factory for Bangladesh at Shahjalal and keep building ‘friendship bridges’ across the country. China has already built six such bridges. The seventh bridge is under construction. The eighth friendship bridge would be China’s second over the Meghna river. China had offered scholarships to Bangladesh students to study in colleges and universities in the People’s Republic (PRC). Social and cultural exchange programmes were firmed up. Bangladesh agreed to recognize Tibet and Taiwan as integral part of the PRC. The Brahmaputra river water flow through Bangladesh was discussed but the two sides avoided any serious mention of the Chinese construction of a giant barrage on Brahmaputra (Yarlung Zangbo Jiang river) in Tibet and its impact on the river water flow through Bangladesh for good diplomatic reasons.

The Chinese interest in Bangladesh was on the predictable lines. China has similar co-operation agreements with Myanmar. The strategic relationship and exploitation of hydrocarbon had been the key focus of the Chinese co-operation in both the Bay of Bengal basin region countries. Both are offered interest-free credits for developmental projects and free market access of merchandise to China. Ironically, China is the world’s largest merchandise exporter. To crack into the Chinese market with low technology, labour intensive products such as readymade garments is extremely difficult, if not impossible. Understandably, China, the world’s largest energy guzzler ahead of the USA, is keen to rope in Bangladesh as a low cost import source of hydrocarbon.

Bangladesh has proven reserves of over 25 trillion cubic feet (tcf) of gas. It also has proven reserves of about 30 million barrels of oil, which is not much. Actually, it is a net importer of oil. But, the gas reserves are huge. According to the US Geological Survey, the country is sitting on an additional ‘undiscovered reserves’ of natural gas of 32.1 Tcf. Several foreign companies have tied up with the state-owned Petrobangla to exploit and output-share Bangladesh hydrocarbon. They include Royal Dutch Shell, Texaco, Cairn Energy, Holland Sea Search, Unocal and Rexwood-Okland. Now, China Petroleum, which has secured special exploration rights and production sharing facility in Myanmar, has strongly pitched for a part of Bangladeshi strategic energy resource.

Compare and contrast Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao’s diplomatic achievements as perceived in the Sino-Bangla treaty of March, 2010, with our own Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s in September, 2011. It seems Singh had gone to Bangladesh rather unprepared. He had given away a free access to the Bangla garments exporting industry, the world’s third largest, into India’s US$ 60-billion-plus textile market, practically in return for nothing. He received flak for being unable to commit a share of Teesta water to Bangladesh. Back home, he was criticized for giving away more land (pockets) to Bangladesh under an exchange programme. The huge trade concession given to Bangladesh went almost unnoticed and unappreciated in both the countries under the barrage of criticism over a minor share of Teesta water.

Once again, India lost a great opportunity to play the role of a long-term partner in Bangladesh’s economic progress and be recognized as a true friend and trusted neighbor. There was no serious effort on the part of India to treat Bangladesh as an equal partner in progress. For almost quarter of a century, India had been in fruitless talks with Bangladesh to build a gas pipeline between the two countries to lift surplus gas from the eastern neighbor. India could also join other foreign entities to explore and produce gas in collaboration with Petrobangla on an output sharing basis. The matter did not even find a mention in the two-nation summit agenda. It was a failed summit in so far is India is concerned. The fault entirely lay with the Indian government and its incompetent foreign office. A terrorist bomb attack in Delhi, when Singh was in Dacca, helped the Indian prime minister rush back to the capital. The human tragedy back home overshadowed the news of Singh’s disappointing Bangla trip. (IPA Service)