India yesterday made it clear that the much-desired Teesta water sharing deal would not be signed during Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's upcoming visit there as the country was yet to have all on board for resolving the issue. 

“In fact, there is no agreement on the cards [till now] on the Teesta. We are working to overcome internal difficulties. You all know in our system we need to take the state government into confidence," said Sripriya Ranganathan, joint secretary (Bangladesh Myanmar desk) of the Indian external affairs ministry.

She said, “India-Bangladesh relation is not just about Teesta. Why are we not talking about the other rivers?”

Talking to a visiting Bangladesh media delegation invited by the Indian government ahead of Hasina's visit, Ranganathan said the much-talked about Hasina's visit was not an ordinary one.

“There is no zero-sum game in the relations with Bangladesh. This is the most comprehensive partnership we have today,” she said and added that they were still working on overcoming “internal difficulty” to resolve the Teesta water sharing issue. 

In another development, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is all set to join Sunday's banquet of India's President Pranab Mukherjee, who has thrown it in honour of Hasina.   

The Daily Star's Kolkata correspondent reported that Mamata would leave Kolkata for Delhi tomorrow evening and join the banquet.

Due to opposition from Mamata, the signing of a deal on Indo-Bangla water sharing of the Teesta river was put on hold at the last moment around seven years ago.

Since then, there has been no ministerial-level Joint Rivers Commission (JRC) meeting between India and Bangladesh with the former assuring Dhaka that Teesta water would be shared between the co-riparian states once internal differences between Delhi and Kolkata are resolved.     

Highly-placed sources said Mamata is likely to join Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Bangladesh counterpart Hasina at the inaugural ceremony of Kolkata-Khulna passenger train service on April 8 in New Delhi.

Talking to the Bangladeshi journalists, Ranganathan said, “This [Hasina's visit] is not an ordinary visit. It will be something that will take the relations to new heights."

Ranganathan, who is leading the Bangladesh-Myanmar wing at the ministry of Indian external affairs, said there was no scope for being disappointed for either side of the two countries on the outcome of the visit. 

Though it is clear that no required internal consensus will be achieved on the Teesta issue, another Indian diplomat said in South Asian countries, anything can happen at the last moment.

On defence cooperation, Ranganathan said she did not have yet enough clarity what was exactly going to be signed.

The diplomat, however, said the existing defence cooperation between the two countries would now be in the written form in on document.

“We already have set mechanism, joint exercise, high level visit, training between the armed forces of the two countries, and those will just be in written form,” she said.

The diplomat said there were some very “constructive and progressive” MoUs in a number of areas.

Hasina is set to arrive in New Delhi on April 7 on a four-day official visit.

New Delhi was attaching a “lot of importance” to Hasina's visit, said Gopal Baglay, spokesperson for the Indian ministry, and hoped that the visit would “pave the way for greater friendship between the countries”.

“This is a very important visit,” he said while talking to a group of Bangladesh journalists at the ministry yesterday.

Hasina and Modi are scheduled to hold official talks in New Delhi on April 8.

Foreign Minister AH Mahmood Ali in Dhaka on Tuesday said they were expecting to sign about 35 agreements and memorandums of understanding, including on cyber security, technology, nuclear power, science and defence.