Thaindian News

Dhaka, June 26 (IANS) India will be less threatening to its neighbours because of Washington’s overlapping interests involving the countries in the region, US envoy to Bangladesh has said and urged Dhaka to negotiate with New Delhi to settle the dispute over Tipaimukh dam project.
Ambassador James F. Moriarty’s observation at a discussion here Thursday came as part of his assurance to Bangladeshis that “special ties with New Delhi” will not be at the cost of Dhaka or any of the other South Asian neighbours.

Moriarty urged Dhaka and New Delhi to sit across the table to settle their dispute over India’s Tipaimukh dam project on river Barak, New Age newspaper said Friday.

The US diplomat, however, categorically ruled out his country’s intervention in the dispute on which protests are currently building up in Bangladesh. Experts here fear that the project could play havoc with the life and livelihoods of the people in Bangladesh’s north-east.

Any US intervention would “only complicate matters”, he said while addressing a discussion on US president Barak Obama’s South Asia policy.

Moriarty said that Washington’s “special engagement with New Delhi” would not affect its ties with Dhaka “because US interests overlapped all the countries in the region”.

Responding to queries from the audience on the Indian move to construct the Tipaimukh dam upstream of the river Barak in India’s Manipur state, Moriarty said: “I urge the people of Bangladesh, the government of Bangladesh to negotiate with India to settle this (Tipaimukh dispute).”

About Washington’s special engagement with New Delhi and its possible implications for other South Asian countries, he said: “Whatever we do with India won’t be done sacrificing Bangladesh… we have overlapping interests in many areas (which also) involves Bangladesh.”

“We have bilateral relations with other (South Asian) countries also,” the US envoy stressed, adding: “India will be less threatening to its neighbours because of Washington’s overlapping interests involving the countries in the region.”

To a question, the envoy advised Dhaka to try to figure out a solution to bilateral disputes with India through “enhanced negotiations”.

“You should never say ‘never’ (about solution of a problem). What cannot be solved today can be solved tomorrow… Pakistan and India too have made progress (towards improvement of their ties) and resolved several bilateral water-related problems,” said Moriarty.

“Washington is encouraged by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s pledge to fight terrorism at home and at regional level,” the envoy said.

He said South Asia was now at the ‘centre stage’ of the new policy of the Obama administration, which also revised its strategy for troubled Pakistan and Afghanistan exploring allies’ support to contain terrorism while the US engaged with India on the basis of common concerns like threats of terrorism.