The India-Bangladesh border conflict

GLOBAL IMPLICATIONS

Since the India-Bangladesh border dispute has mostly affected the two countries, and particularly the people living close to the border and in the enclaves, no major global implications have been noticed. However, an analysis of an hypothetical scenario related to the historical conflict and how its consequences would affect the global society is exposed in the following paragraph.

Climate change is, nowadays, an undeniable reality, and no longer an hypothesis, despite the claims of some global actors that want to protect their personal interests. In fact, experts on the field claim that, if global warming hasn't stopped increasing by 2050, the Earth could start experiencing serious droughts as well as desertification. According to a recent report, that could lead to 140 million people feeling forced to abandon their homes all over the planet. However, although it is likely that there will be some climate change refugees, by reducing global warming this 140 million potential refugees could be reduced up to 80%.

If we focus on the worst case scenario, the effects of climate change could specially affect, along with other regions, the area of Bangladesh, since one of its borders is delimited by the Bay of Bengal and the Indian Ocean. Indeed, the melting of the poles triggered by the increase in global temperatures would lead to the rising of the sea levels; a situation that, over time, could get worse, leading to the disappearence of entire cities under the water.

Graph illustrating the rise of sea levels

In the case of Bangladesh, the áreas of the country closer to the coast could experience continuous floods, making the population move to lands further inside the nation. However, Bangladesh has a surface 147.630 square km and 166.368.149 inhabitants, a population that continues to grow through time. As a result, all these internal climate refugees would saturate the coutry, and urgent measures should be taken to satisfy even the basic needs of all citizens. Chances are, resources would be clearly insufficent, and a great number of Bangladesh inhabitants would have to leave the country.

However, Bangladeshi climate refugees would not be able to move to India, due to the fences built along the border, which have the function of preventing Bangladeshi or Pakistani people from trying to cross the frontier.

India- Bangladesh border

Thus, asylum seekeers would try to move to south-east Asia ( not in countries such as Indonesia or Thailand, since the rise of the sea level would have also tremendously affected them); however, it would be difficult for the refugees to get the nationality of many of the south-east Asian nations, due to the own struggles that these are currently facing ( poverty, environmental threads, political instability) as well as due to strict immigration policies ( as it is the case in China).

In this complex scenario, Bangladesh former inhabitants would have to move to áreas of the world that have been apparently less affected by climate change, and that are wealthy enough so as to provide a job for all the newcomers, such as Germany , France or Russia. As a result, a great humanitarian crisis would destabilize all world's economies, triggering  at the same time protests, instability, social movements and a global sense of hopelessness.

INTERNATIONAL ORGANISATIONS: VIEWS ON THE CONFLICT

Since its independence, Bangladesh has adopted a moderate foreign policy, under the principle of "Friendship towards all, malice towards none". This is the reason why Bangladesh generally acts as a moderator in international forums, and has always been leading international peacekeeping operations, being one of the largest contributors to the UN in this particular field. Just to give an idea of the efforts done by Bangladesh to guarantee the protection of vulnerable communities and of countries in conflict, in 2017 the country had 7.246 Bangladeshi troops and police personnel  in 10 missions all over the world. 

Bangladesh became the 136th member of the United Nations in September 1974, and the country became a non-permanent member of the Security Council from 1979 to 1980, and from 2000 to 2001. 

A Bangladeshi police official in a UN mission in Liberia.

Nevertheless, and as a former Banladesh Foreign Secretary states, the UN did not take any measures to stop the genocide in Bangladesh during the times where the country was fighting for its independence. Ultimately the Security Council approved a resolution that called for an immediate cease-fire, a decision that could have been taken sooner, as argued by Bangladeshi people. When it comes to the border conflict ended in 2015, the United Nations did not particularly get involved in it. A reason for that could be the fact that the global refugee crisis, which has been an international issue since the 2010 decade, was the major problem faced by the organisation.

Since the end of the Cold War,in 1991, Bangladesh has strengthen its good relations with the neighboring countries, leaning towards a greater cooperation with the Arab countries. Indeed, "the State shall endeavour to consolidate, preserve and strengthen fraternal relations among Muslim countries based on Islamic solidarity "( as stated in the "Constitution of Bangladesh").

Bangladesh is a member of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation since around 1974, when a Bangladeshi delegation team attended an international meeting organised by the OIC, which is the second largest inter-governmental organisation in the world after the United Nations. The 57 member States promote cooperation, among them but also with the UN and other international organisations, so as to protect the interests of the Muslim community that they represent under the union of the OIC.

OIC's -2025 programme of action, exposing the main goals of the organisation

When it comes to bilateral relations, currently Bangladesh has close economic and diplomatic links with the EU and North America, since these are the areas that receive the major part of the country's exports. The relations with the Asian world, specially with Japan, Korea and Southeast Asia are based on trade, commerce and investment. In fact, Bangladesh is one of the members of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation(SAARC), although free trade within the organisation has been severely damaged due to regionalism and the conflictive relations between India, Pakistan and Bangladesh.

It must be noticed, all in all, that Bangladesh did not receive much international support on the enclave conflict with India, and the two countries were left alone to solve the problem categorised by many as an "internal affair" by themselves.

The Land Boundary agreement that put an end to the conflict was first emitted in 1974 by Indira Gandhi of India and Sheikh Mujibur Rahman of Bangladesh. Since the accord failed and the subsequent governments were not able to restart the negotiations, the agreement was postponed until 2015.

India and Bangladesh Prime Ministers, holding a map of the new distribution of enclaves after the 2015 agreement

CONCEPTS APPLIED TO THE REGION 

The People's Republic of Bangladesh is a South Asian country that shares land borders with India and Myanmar, and is limited by the Bay of Bengal on the south. With a population of more than 166.368.000 inhabitants is the 8th most populated country in the world, one place above Russia. One of the aspects that defines Bangladesh is the religion shared by the vast majority of the population, Islam,particularly Sunni Islam, which is practiced by the 83.4% of the total number of inhabitants.

Bangladesh, which is now an independent country, has a long history of conflicts related to its sovereignty. In the second half of the 18th century , altogether with India and Pakistan, the country was part of the so-called British Raj, which was a British Colony ruled by the British East India Company. A series of conflicts and a strong feeling of nationalism led India to demand complete independence from Britain, which was finally achieved in 1947. Furthermore, the then Dominion of Pakisan, composed by Bangladesh and the current Pakistan, separated itself from the new sovereign India due to religious differences between Hindus and Muslims. However, Bangladesh had its own identity, like for instance a different language than Pakistan as well as other traditions, and after the Bangladesh Liberation War in 1971 also Bangladesh became a sovereign state.

Even after the numerous conflicts and changes of borders, by the end of the 1971 war Bangladesh still had vague frontiers. An enormous number of small enclaves along the India-Bangladesh border remained an unsolved problem not only for the two states, but also for all is inhabitants, which often lived in precarious conditions due to the lack of basic resources and services. The problem was finally solved in 2015 with the signature of the Land Boundary Agreement, which had already been written in 1974.  

Even before its independency, and as it has been stated above, Bangladeshi people had strong regionalistic feelings, since they felt identified with a common language,Bengali, traditions, values like that of freedom of religion and a common oppression by India and Pakistan. Thus, the unique identity of Bangladesh has always differentiated it from its neighbors, even when official borders did not separate them. 

When it comes to diplomacy, Bangladesh has adopted the role of the moderator in international conflicts, following the policy of  "friendship towards all, malice towards none".  The country is one of the major contributors to the UN when it comes to missions, promoting through them international peace and cooperation. With strong ties with Southeast Asia, EU, North America and the Muslim states, as part of the OIC, Bangladesh has left behind  its turbulent past by betting on a conflict-free future.

REFERENCES

Syed, Ali. “UN Inaction during the Liberation War.” Dhaka Courier , 8 Apr. 2011, http://www.dhakacourier.com.bd/un-inaction-during-the-liberation-war/

Quadir, Serajul. “India, Bangladesh Sign Historic Land Boundary Agreement.” Reuters, Thomson Reuters, 6 June 2015,https://in.reuters.com/article/bangladesh-india-land-treaty-idINKBN0OM0IV20150606

“Bangladesh: Three Decades of Service and Sacrifice in UN Peacekeeping Peacekeeping.” United Nations, United Nations, https://peacekeeping.un.org/en/bangladesh-three-decades-of-service-and-sacrifice-un-peacekeeping

Pike, John. “Bangladesh - Foreign Relations.” Vietnam War - American Return to Dog Fighting, https://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/bangladesh/forrel.htm

Sawe, Benjamin Elisha. “Religious Beliefs In Bangladesh.” WorldAtlas, WorldAtlas, 13 Sept. 2016, https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/religious-beliefs-in-bangladesh.html