India's Delays Handed Strategic Bangladesh Projects to China
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- Tarique Rahman's June 22-26 visit to China produced 17 bilateral instruments, including plans for a Bangladesh-China-Myanmar Economic Corridor and a 2+2 diplomacy-defense dialogue mechanism between Dhaka and Beijing.
- China's state-owned Civil Engineering Construction Corporation will invest $650 million in a 110-acre SEZ adjacent to Mongla Port — 80 km from the Indian border and 188 km from Kolkata — raising Indian intelligence concerns about potential maritime surveillance of naval deployments around Kolkata and Haldia ports.
- The Teesta River Comprehensive Management and Restoration Project sits near India's Siliguri Corridor, the narrow strategic land bridge connecting mainland India to its restive Northeast.
- India signed a 2015 agreement giving Hiranandani Group's subsidiary Evita Constructions the Mongla SEZ contract, but the developer never commenced work; Bangladesh's interim administration under Muhammad Yunus delisted the project in October 2025.
- India's failure to sign a Teesta water-sharing agreement by 2011 — blocked by West Bengal's objections — pushed Dhaka to start exploring a Chinese role in 2016; a $1 billion Indian financing offer in May 2024 came too late, with Sheikh Hasina ousted in August 2024.
- Hambantota port offers the precedent: India declined to develop the Sri Lankan port, and China took over operations in 2017 under a 99-year lease after Sri Lanka failed to repay loans.
Why it matters: India had first refusal on every one of these projects — Mongla SEZ, Teesta river management, Hambantota — and forfeited them through delays, internal political objections, and anti-Bangladeshi rhetoric (Home Minister Amit Shah's 'termites' remark) that fueled anti-India sentiment, leaving China with strategic infrastructure assets just 80 km from the Indian border and adjacent to the Siliguri Corridor.
