Rahman courts China on Teesta to squeeze India
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- Tarique Rahman made his first four-day official visit to China, securing audiences with Premier Li Qiang, NPC Chairman Zhao Leji, and President Xi Jinping, who pledged Beijing would remain Bangladesh's 'trusted friend' and endorsed Dhaka's aspirations to join BRICS and the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation.
- The Teesta River Comprehensive Management and Restoration Project moved from speculative proposal to political centerpiece, with Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun explicitly framing it as a crucial 'livelihood project' Beijing is prepared to support to the best of its ability.
- The Teesta initiative is entirely contained within Bangladeshi territory — dredging, embankments, reservoirs, and irrigation modernization — deliberately bypassing the transboundary water-sharing question that has blocked a formal Dhaka-New Delhi treaty for 15 years over political opposition in India's West Bengal state.
- India's security establishment views the project with alarm because the Teesta basin sits uncomfortably close to the Siliguri Corridor, the narrow 'Chicken's Neck' connecting mainland India to its northeastern states.
- Beijing and Dhaka publicly decoupled the project from geopolitics — Guo dismissed India's concerns and said China-Bangladesh relations are not directed against any third party — while Bangladeshi officials framed it as a humanitarian and agricultural productivity effort.
- China stands to reinforce its Belt and Road footprint in South Asia and advance a proposed China-Myanmar-Bangladesh Economic Corridor toward the Bay of Bengal, with technical planning and risk assessments still to be finalized before construction begins.
Why it matters: New Delhi faces a binding strategic choice: revive the moribund Teesta water-sharing treaty, accelerate Indian-financed cross-border projects, or watch Beijing entrench engineering presence near the Siliguri Corridor — the 'Chicken's Neck' chokepoint to India's northeastern states. Because the project sits entirely on Bangladeshi soil, India loses its traditional diplomatic lever without any treaty violation to protest.
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