NEW DELHI: Rolling out the red carpet to host Bangladesh Premier Sheikh Hasina for the first foreign state visit of the year is intended to send out a clear message; that India’s priority is the neighbourhood, and South Asia’s crucial rise to prosperity depends on close cooperation among member states.

That India is pulling out all stops and going the extra mile for the Bangladesh Prime Minister is apparent from an unprecedented statement coinciding with her arrival from Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao, who hailed the visit as “a path-breaking one” which “gives both countries a historic opportunity to build a new and forward looking relationship” that can “open new vistas in our bilateral relations.”

India, Rao said, is “addressing an entire range of developmental issues of direct interest to Bangladesh including railway infrastructure, dredging, powergrid connectivity, human resource development and investment and trade.”

What makes the positive rhetoric and ‘atmospherics’ particularly significant is that until recently, Bangladesh was viewed along with Pakistan as a serious problem confronting India’s foreign policy establishment. Efforts had actually been made to bypass Bangladesh and directly connect northeast India with southeast Asia via Myanmar because of the persistent

lack of progress on the

security and economic fronts with Dhaka, particularly during the tenure of the previous BNP - Jamaat-e-Islami government in Bangladesh between 2001 and 2006.

The positive change in bilateral ties was slowly ushered in during the tenure of the caretaker government in Dhaka (between 2006 and December 2008), which saw a landmark visit by the Bangladesh army chief Moeen U Ahmed to India in 2008. The improved bilateral relations have gathered pace since Sheikh Hasina’s Awami League was swept to power a year ago, with what Rao called the hope of reviving “those physical and emotional links which remain disrupted since independence.”

The Awami League government has made a number of major shifts in policy, turning the focus away from militant Islam to secularism and development, envisaging a return to the original ideals of the Constitution drawn up by the founding fathers of Bangladesh. Political parties will not be allowed to proclaim religious affiliation and Sheikh Hasina, who faces serious threats to her life, has refused to indulge foreign militants on Bangladeshi soil, from here they have staged attacks on India. Speaking recently, she said she would “not invite trouble for the country” by allowing militants and terrorists to use Bangladesh for carrying out terrorism in another country. Unlike the past when governments in Dhaka refused to even acknowledge the existence of insurgent training camps and other militant infrastructure, Prime Minister Hasina’s government has moved to end political patronage for insurgent groups operating in Bangladesh and has facilitated the handover of leaders of insurgent groups from the northeast who had sought refuge in that country. At the summit level talks with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Monday, cooperation against militancy and terrorism, both bilaterally and in the South Asian region, was high on the agenda.

In 2009, Indian authorities captured seven top militants of the banned United Liberation Front of Asom with tacit help from Dhaka. “They (militants and terrorists) will use the land of Bangladesh to conduct their terrorism in another country and we will create enmity by harbouring them - this cannot be,” Sheikh Hasina recently told a meeting of top police officials. “I know there are risks. I also have life threat but for the sake of the country and its sovereignty, I will not allow that.” the Prime Minister said, emphasizing that she was “taking the risk to protect the country from being used as the base of another country’s militants and terrorists”.

Bangladesh was, until recently, viewed as helping Pakistan conduct a proxy war against India, a charge that the Sheikh Hasina-led government has moved firmly to negate. A total of five agreements, including three crucial security-related pacts, were signed today, among them one providing mutual legal assistance in criminal matters, one for transfer of convicted and sentenced persons and one to combat international terrorism, organised crime and illegal drug trafficking. A framework power sharing agreement and a cultural exchange programme were also signed after discussions between the two Prime Ministers.

The three security-related pacts will help India to press for the extradition of suspected insurgents who have taken shelter in Bangladeshi territory. The prisoner exchange deal is expected to formalise the extradition process between the two countries, sources indicated. New Delhi will also hand over around 20 criminals wanted by Dhaka who had sought refuge in India.

India announced a 500 million dollar line of credit to promote rail and road infrastructure development in Bangladesh and a decision to facilitate a rail transit link from Bangladesh to Nepal and a road link to Bhutan.

Cooperation on sharing river waters is on the anvil, after the Joint Rivers Commission met in Dhaka last week, after a long hiatus. “Discussion on water sharing has been held and will continue, and the issue of getting a fair share of the Teesta river’s water will be resolved through discussions in the Joint Rivers Commission. We’ll resolve all issues with India through discussions,” the Prime Minister said prior to her departure for New Delhi on Sunday. The JRC has decided to allow India to help in dredging the silted Ichhamati river. Bangladesh has, however, recently approached an international tribunal at the UN Conference for Law of the Seas to resolve its disputed maritime boundary with India.

Sheikh Hasina will be conferred the prestigious

Indira Gandhi Prize for Peace, Disarmament and Development on Tuesday.