India directs Ganges treaty talks to joint rivers commission
Indian foreign ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said Ganges water sharing with Bangladesh would be discussed through the Joint Rivers Commission. Technical meetings continue. Bangladesh seeks a new treaty guaranteeing dry-season flows as the 1996 agreement expires on 12 December. Neither side announced agreed replacement terms. The immediate task is to settle the substance of talks before the existing pact runs out.
Geopolitics··Morning
The joint commission is the venue for Ganges talks
At a New Delhi briefing on 29 September, Indian foreign ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said Ganges water sharing with Bangladesh would be handled through the Joint Rivers Commission. He also said technical meetings on the treaty were continuing. The Business Standard and Prothom Alo reported the same remarks from the briefing. Naming the commission identifies the forum for talks; Jaiswal did not announce agreed terms for a replacement treaty. The level of water-flow guarantee the two countries might accept remains open.[1], [2]
Bangladesh seeks a dry-season guarantee
Bangladesh water minister Shahiduddin Chowdhury Anee has called for a new agreement rather than a simple extension of the existing text. He argues that his downstream country needs a guarantee of water flow in the dry season. Prothom Alo reported the proposed guarantee clause and the question put to India at the briefing. The Business Standard likewise placed that request in the context of Jaiswal’s direction to the commission. Bangladesh’s request is a negotiating position; India has not announced acceptance of it.[1], [2]
The 1996 treaty expires on 12 December
India and Bangladesh signed a water-sharing treaty in 1996 governing dry-season Ganges flows at Farakka. It expires on 12 December. That deadline makes the continuing technical discussions an immediate diplomatic issue: the governments must decide what follows the current text. The briefing, however, gave no new sharing formula, agreed guarantee clause or signing schedule. The confirmed development is that talks continue and India has named the bilateral institution in which the wider water-sharing question is to be discussed.[1], [2]
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