Sunday, May 6, 2012

Hillary to raise Teesta deal with Mamata

Dhaka, May 7 (sunnews24.com) -- US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton will discuss Teesta water sharing deal when she will meet West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday at the Writers' Building in Kolkata. 

The NDTV station said on Monday that the contentious issue of sharing of water of trans-boundary river Teesta would come up in their talks following Hillary's meeting with Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in Dhaka on Saturday. 

The Teesta water-sharing agreement between India and Bangladesh had to be shelved during Indian prime minister Manmohan Singh's visit to Dhaka last September following reservations by Mamata who felt Bangladesh was getting a better deal than West Bengal's. 

Mamata's last-minute hardline approach had forced the central government to postpone the ready-to-sign-deal with Bangladesh, creating diplomatic hiccups between the two nations. 

On Sunday, Indian finance minister Pranab Mukherjee in a meeting with editors in Dhaka also blamed "ground realities" such as lack of majority of the ruling party for failure to seal the Teesta water sharing deal. 

"In a democracy such as ours," he said "this process often becomes time consuming." 

"There are certain issues that need to be resolved," Mukherjee said of the Teesta deal delay and described the issue as "sensitive". 
Hillary arrived in Kolkata on Sunday as part of her three-day visit to India - the last stop of her tri-nation Asia tour that included trips to Beijing and Dhaka. 

The NDTV said in the meeting with Mamata Hillary is expected to explore investment and trade opportunities in West Bengal and discuss the issue of Foreign Direct Investment in multi-brand retail. Mamata's strong reservations over multi-brand retail make her the biggest roadblock for US plans to invest in the Indian market. 

Later Monday, Hillary will head to New Delhi. 
Civil nuclear cooperation, regional security and Iran are among the key issues that she is expected to discuss with External Affairs Minister SM Krishna during their meeting on Tuesday, the tv station said. 

During her stay in the national capital, she is also expected to call on Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, during which they will also review progress made in their countries' strategic partnership ahead of the India-US strategic dialogue to be held in Washington on June 13, it said. 

Both sides will discuss civil nuclear cooperation and regional security situation with New Delhi expected to brief the US Secretary of State on its proposed regional investors' meet to discuss economic development of Afghanistan, Press Trust of India said. 

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