Indian external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj addresses the 72nd United Nations General Assembly at the UN headquarters in New York, US, September 23, 2017. — Reuters file photo
Indian external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj on Monday said that the signing of an agreement on sharing of water of the Teesta River would not be possible without taking West Bengal on board.
‘Resolution of Teesta is not possible without taking all stakeholders on board,’ Sushma said at a press conference in New Delhi, according a video record published on the external affairs ministry website.
The solution could not be achieved merely by the two central governments, the government of India and the government of Bangladesh, she said.
The West Bengal government is a key stakeholder, Sushma said, adding that they were trying to engage with the West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee on the matter.
Mamata had proposed to provide water from three other rivers, excluding Teesta, to Bangladesh during prime minister Sheikh Hasina’s visit to New Delhi in 2017, she added.
Hasina did not directly mentioned about resolution of the stalemate on sharing Teesta River water during her visit to West Bengal on Friday.
‘We’ve [Bangladesh and India] solved the problems one by one. I don’t want to break the excellent momentum of this ceremony raising the rest few problems,’ she said at the inaugural ceremony of Bangladesh Bhavana at Visva-Bharati University at Santiniketan of the West Bengal on June 25.
Indian prime minister Narendra Modi and West Bengal chief minister did not mention anything about the signing of agreement on Teesta River water sharing in their statements at the same function.
Source: New Age.
