India PM Singh in historic visit to Bangladesh

Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh arrived in Bangladesh Tuesday for the first visit by a prime minister from India's Congress Party in 40 years. The two-day visit is expected to see a number of landmark agreements including deals on ending long-running border disputes and sharing water from the Teesta river. 

Reuters/Andrew Biraj

Relations between the two south Asian neighbours have been marked by decades of mutual mistrust and low-level border clashes that have prevented the development of substantive trade and political ties.

Ties have improved between the two countries since the traditionally pro-Indian Awami League, led by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, swept to power in 2009 polls.

The last visit by an Indian premier was in 1999.

Singh’s visit comes just months after he triggered a row with comments that many Bangladeshis were "anti-Indian". The comments were posted on his official website before being swiftly removed with the explanation that they were "off the record".

The two sides are to sign a key agreement to definitively demarcate their 4,000-kilometre shared border.

This will include swapping scores of enclaves - tiny, landlocked communities in each other's territory - in which more than 50,000 people live, cut off from their respective governments and without access to basic services.

They are also scheduled to sign a water-sharing agreement for a key common river, the Teesta, which would guarantee the flow of water to Bangladesh's most impoverished and water-starved northwestern districts.

India is currently seeking to improve ties with its close neighbours, partly in a bid to counter the growing regional influence of China, which is Bangladesh's largest trade partner.