The two countries have struggled to establish good ties ever since India helped its eastern neighbor to emerge as independent Bangladesh in 1971 from what was then East Pakistan.
Ties have also suffered over recent years because of Indian worries Islamist militants were using Bangladesh as a base.
Officials in India and Bangladesh said a deal to share water from two rivers — the Teesta and the Feni – that flow from the Himalayas through India and Bangladesh to the Bay of Bengal may not be signed during Singh’s visit because the government of India’s West Bengal state refused to agree.
Even if a deal was initiated by Singh and his counterpart, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, the endorsement of the chief minister of West Bengal, Mamata Banerjee, was essential for its implementation, officials in India and Bangladesh said.
Bangladesh Foreign Minister Dipu Moni said late on Monday that India had not ruled out the signing of an agreement.
“We are still hopeful,” she said.
But a Bangladesh Foreign Ministry official told Reuters on Tuesday the river deal “looks very unlikely” during Singh’s visit.
Also there was not expected to be agreement on an Indian request for transit rights through Bangladesh for India’s land-locked northeastern states, because terms and conditions had not been finalized, the official said.
But Bangladesh would allow India to use its Chittagong and Mongla ports from next year to supply its northeastern states, Finance Minister Abul Maal Abdul Muhith has said.
Disputed territory
Bangladesh opposition leader Begum Khaleda Zia opposes giving India a “corridor” and the right to use the ports because she feels it would give India “an upper hand” over Bangladesh. Singh is due to meet Khaleda on Wednesday.
Singh and Hasina, who visited India early last year, will hold talks later on Tuesday.
Analysts say India wants a lasting, stable relationship with Bangladesh, an emerging economy and big market for Indian goods, no matter who rules in Dhaka.
Singh and Hasina are expected to sign agreements on an exchange of disputed territory, dating back to the 1947 partition of British India, as well as pacts on trade and cooperation in various areas.
Singh’s visit, which ends on Wednesday, is the first by an Indian prime minister to Bangladesh in 12 years.
Bilateral trade has grown steadily but remains heavily in India’s favor, with the gap widening, causing concern in Bangladesh where businesses are asking for the removal of both tariff and non-tariff barriers.
But Bangladeshi economists and analysts say a pact on the sharing of water from the Teesta and more than 50 other common rivers is most important for downstream, agrarian Bangladesh.
Abu Ahmed, a professor of economics at the Dhaka University, said India’s central government had been “hostage to the whims of Mamata Banerjee” and the lack of agreement on rivers would damped hopes for closer ties.
