We are one-quarter of the way through the 21st century. Decisions made in the next five years by national leaders, business leaders and citizens will go a long way to determining how the next 75 years unfold. By the time India, the nation of my birth, turns 100 in 2047, it should be clear which nations and peoples will be thriving and what the global community will become during the second half of the century.
I believe nations that emphasize entrepreneurship (including the growing social enterprise and business sectors), harness the power of new technologies, and maintain as harmonious relations with their neighbors as possible will ride waves of prosperity in the coming decades. They will see gains in education, health care, environmental stewardship and employment. Those that overregulate, fear emerging technologies and pick unnecessary fights with nearby nations will suffer. Thriving nations, especially democracies, tend to remain allies of the United States no matter which parties are in power here or abroad.
India is well positioned in most respects to do well during the remainder of the century, but there are some pitfalls it must avoid and some steps that it should take. One of the lowest-hanging fruits to harvest is improving bilateral relations with Bangladesh, especially during the final months of the interim government led by Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus, and then during the first year of the new democratically elected government that Yunus will not be part of but is likely to quietly influence.
Many private companies, governments and regional groups have been actively engaging with a modernizing Bangladesh during this transitional period. Foreign investment and remittances are flowing in at record levels. For its part, the interim government’s wise use of technology is making the public sector more responsive to citizens, investors and businesses; less prone to corruption; and above all, more efficient and open to new ideas. These positive trends don’t capture many headlines but are crucial in the long term.
Bangladesh has clearly moved on from the Hasina years to focus on empowering its people and businesses to be engines of dynamic growth. It has recently adopted some of the success strategies used by India during the last decade, such as instituting e-government to improve public sector efficiency and the day-to-day lives of its citizens at home and abroad.
Bangladesh’s interim government has not gotten everything right, but as many commentators have noted, conditions in the country have improved during its 15 months in power — some dramatically and others more incrementally. Yunus has shown himself to be both a visionary and a pragmatist, characteristics I associate with effective leaders. Hopefully, he has set a tone that the democratically elected leaders who follow him can adopt.
The next few months represent a terrific opportunity for Prime Minister Modi and Chief Adviser Yunus to sit down together and build on the positive meeting they had in Thailand earlier this year. Among the many topics they can discuss are increasing bilateral trade, addressing climate change and strengthening South Asia’s recent economic progress.
Reducing regional and global terrorism and strengthening protections for minorities in both countries and throughout the region can be taken up as well, especially as they would reduce the need for American aid and allow U.S. diplomats to focus on critical issues in other regions, such as East Asia and Latin America. Finally, establishing a mechanism to ensure that people in both countries benefit from emerging technologies is a must. Indeed, India and Bangladesh could become a major economic zone with the largest population block in the world.
Should this meeting take place, it will strengthen the pragmatists in both countries who understand that Bangladesh and India are natural allies with many mutual interests. Hopefully it would also tamp down the growing negativity in each country about the other — attitudes that are being stoked by those who have an interest in bilateral tensions. This is a time when leaders should think and act with the long-term well-being of their citizens and the South Asia region in mind.
I am confident that Prime Minister Modi and Chief Adviser Yunus will see the opportunity for improved bilateral relations for what it is: a no-brainer that will nonetheless require courage and wisdom to seize. It could start with a substantive meeting of their foreign ministers next month.
Changing the trajectory of Indo-Bangladesh relations could be one of the most lasting legacies of both governments. It could serve as a model and even inspiration for a course change by leaders in other global hot spots where tensions and conflict are continuing, which threaten to drag down the global economy and negatively impact American interests. In fact, a thawing of relations between India and Bangladesh now is critical for global progress.