Representatives of Japan, Bangladesh look at Tripura as potential gateway of NE India at conclave

The two-day conclave was organised by Shillong-based think-tank Asian Confluence in association with the Japanese embassy from Tuesday.

While attending the conclave on ‘North East India, Bangladesh and the Bay of Bengal in the Indo Pacific: Building Partnerships: The Way Forward’, Suzuki said Bangladesh could be the industrial hub of the Bay of Bengal region while Northeast India and Bangladesh value change could prosper both countries with use of Japan-funded Matabari deep sea port in Bangladesh along with the existing Chittagong and Mongla ports.

“Value chain of Northeast India and Bangladesh could be beneficial and prosperous for both the countries. The Matabari deep sea port can be used along with Chittagong and Mongla ports of Bangladesh and these would help the region to a great extent. Bangladesh and Northeast India can have a win-win prospect,” the Ambassador said.

He also said Japanese Prime Minister and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi recently discussed prospects to develop Northeast India and cited a host of projects going on in the Northeast Indian states with help from Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA).

While stating that the Japanese government has a high priority to develop Northeast India and increase trade activities with Bangladesh in its policies, Suzuki said turning Bangladesh into an industrial hub of the Bay of Bengal region could resolve many issues, including unemployment.

Stating that India and Japan have been civilizational partners since long, the ambassador stressed on the fact that Northeast states are landlocked but put together, the Northeast region enjoys close proximity to the Bay of Bengal and is ecologically connected to the Bay of Bengal through a unique contiguous landscape.

Focusing on the potential of connectivity and cooperation with the nations of Bay of Bengal region, the Ambassador said the Japanese-funded Matarbari deep-sea port in Bangladesh, which is expected to be operational in 2027, holds potential to become a regional hub for industrial value chain connecting Northeast India through Tripura with Bangladesh and onward onto the larger Bay of Bengal region.

The Matarbari deep sea port is being set up in the Cox’s Bazar area of South East Bangladesh and is expected to be commissioned in 2027.

Bangladesh Minister of State for Shipping Khalid Mahmud Chowdhury, who joined the valedictory session of the conclave, said physical transit and transshipment of goods from Northeast India would start soon through the Chittagong port and said two phases of trial runs were already successfully completed to this end.

Chowdhury said Bangladesh has cordial relations with Japan and India and said that after the completion of the Matarbari port in 2027, Bangladesh and India, particularly the Northeast India, would be immensely benefited.

Speaking to reporters later, Chowdhury said, “We are ready to commence transit and transshipment between Bangladesh and Northeast India. Two trial runs have been completed and we are now waiting for the National Board of Revenue to issue the Statutory Regulatory Order (SRO).”

Tripura shares a deep-rooted relation with Bangladesh even before the country was born. The state played a crucial role on behalf of the Indian side in the 1971 Indo-Pak war and liberation of sovereign Bangladesh. A state which then had 14 lakh people, Tripura sheltered nearly 15 lakh East Pakistani refugees, ran at least eight major Muktijoddha (liberation warrior) training camps and the state government had swooped into action to feed and attend to 1.5 million refugees for months with support of the central government.

Tripura had virtually become the headquarters of the Bangladesh liberation planning and activity and one of the safe havens for liberation war refugees apart from Bengal in those days.

Taking the ties further, a series of regional connectivity projects between these two countries are on the cards. While few of them have already been launched, including the India-Bangladesh Maitri Setu in South Tripura, Indo-Bangla inland waterways connectivity project at Sepahijala district, one Integrated Check Posts (ICP), six Border Check Posts and two Border Haats, a second ICP is being set up between India and Bangladesh at South Tripura and an Indo-Bangla railway connectivity project is in an advanced stage of completion in West Tripura among others.

Chowdhury further said that Agartala would soon become the closest city in India to the international seaport and the Feni Bridge would help Bangladeshi trade prospects with Nepal and Bhutan. “These prospects could catapult Tripura to become the gateway of Northeast India in the coming days,” Chowdhury said.

Bangladesh Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Shahriar Alam, Union DoNER Minister G Kishan Reddy and Minister of State for External Affairs Raj Kumar Ranjan Singh also spoke at the conclave among others.