Regime change in Bangladesh and Bengal could improve cooperation over shared rivers

In India and Bangladesh, two recent changes of government on either side of the border have brought two shared river systems into focus: the Ganges and the Teesta.

The Teesta, the tributary of the Brahmaputra river, which flows from the north-eastern Indian state of Sikkim, through West Bengal into Bangladesh, has been at the centre of a water-sharing stalemate for decades. The Ganges’ existing treaty is set to expire this year.

The first political change was Bangladesh’s newly elected government, formed by the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), which came into power in February 2026. India immediately made key gestures of consequence, such as the restoration of visa services.

It appointed Dinesh Trivedi, a veteran politician whose career has been spent in West Bengal, as the next envoy to Dhaka, signalling Delhi’s intent at direct engagement on sensitive bilateral issues and an effort to reset ties strained significantly by its harbouring of deposed prime minister Sheikh Hasina.

The second change was in India earlier in May, when the country’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party won elections in West Bengal, effectively securing power in most states bordering Bangladesh. The BJP win, its first in West Bengal, could create an effect described by some – especially the party itself – as a “double-engine government”, indicating the seamlessness...

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