The trip is likely to symbolise the decades-old friendship between the two neighbouring South Asian nations, but all is not well in the bilateral partnership. 

At the beginning of 2021, a controversy erupted over the delivery of the vaccine developed by Oxford University, and AstraZeneca, which has a partnership with the Punebased Serum Institute of India (SII) to manufacture the vaccine. SII CEO Adar Poonawalla said India had barred Serum from selling doses on the private market until everyone in India had received the vaccine. 

The statement caused a flutter in Bangladesh, which had inked a deal with India last year to receive 30 million doses of the vaccine. Many Bangladeshis felt that India was backsliding on its obligations as part of the agreement. Some took to social media labelling India as an untrustworthy neighbour. Poonawalla later issued a statement clarifying that exports of the vaccines were permitted to all countries, and Bangladesh’s Foreign Minister A.K. Abdul Momen confirmed that his country was on track to receive the vaccine. Still, the experience left a bad taste in Bangladeshis’ mouths. 

“The statement by Poonawalla on the coronavirus vaccine created ripples in Bangladesh because it made no sense to deny us the vaccine after we inked a deal,” Lailufar Yasmin, Associate Professor at the University of Dhaka in Bangladesh said. 

Yasmin pointed out several instances when Dhaka felt that India didn’t live up to its promises. In September 2020, Bangladesh asked India to resume onion exports to the country, after New Delhi abruptly slapped a ban on exports. India is the biggest supplier of onions to Bangladesh, which buys a yearly average of more than 350,000 tons. Following the export ban, onion prices in Bangladesh jumped by more than 50%, prompting the government to procure supplies from elsewhere and provide onions at subsidized rates. 

“India has historically had a good relationship with Bangladesh but has missed many opportunities to cement the relationship,” Yasmin said. 

In December 2020, both countries held a virtual summit where they discussed topics like boosting trade, investment and transportation links, but avoided the thorny issue of sharing the water of the Teesta river, which flows into Bangladesh from the Indian states of Sikkim and West Bengal. Bangladesh, being the downstream country, wants India to share more water from the Teesta, but New Delhi has so far been unable to strike a deal on the matter, likely due to strong opposition from West Bengal state. 

Two politicians from the Trinamool Congress (TMC), the ruling party in West Bengal, said a solution may not be in sight for the foreseeable future as the glaciers feeding water into the Teesta increasingly melt and heighten the risk of drought in several parts of the state if the river water were shared with Bangladesh. 

“For India to share water, possibilities have to be explored on how the people of northern West Bengal can be compensated in the lean season. Otherwise, the Teesta river is liable to dry up like the Ganga did when we inked the Ganga water sharing deal in 1996,” said Sukhendu Sekhar Roy, a member of the upper house of India’s Parliament from the TMC party. 

“Kolkata port has now become dead because of the diversion of water to Bangladesh. In addition, arsenic is being found in several areas as the ground water level has gone so low, endangering millions of lives. That experience has made Bengalis bitter, so they are apprehensive about sharing the waters of the Teesta,” he added. 

Joyeeta Bhattacharjee, a senior fellow with the Observer Research Foundation (ORF), a think tank says, “We need to understand that West Bengal is a major stakeholder in the resolution of the Teesta matter. If West Bengal doesn’t change its stance, then it’s difficult to ink a deal,” the expert told DW