New Delhi: Bangladesh formally sought China’s involvement in the Teesta River Comprehensive Management and Restoration Project during Foreign Minister Khalilur Rahman’s visit to Beijing this week, marking the first time the country’s elected BNP-led government has made the request.According to a joint press release issued after the talks, Rahman raised the Teesta project during a bilateral meeting with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi. The visit was Rahman’s first official trip to China since assuming office.“The Bangladeshi side also sought the involvement and support of China in the Teesta River Comprehensive Management and Restoration Project (TRCMRP),” said the press release.Earlier this week, Indian Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri had told visiting Bangladeshi journalists in New Delhi that India was ready to hold talks on the project with Dhaka.According to Prothom Alo, Misri, in answer to China’s proposal for a large-scale Teesta development project, said India had already submitted its own proposal to Bangladesh and remained prepared to advance discussions if Bangladesh’s new government wished to pursue the matter.Misri’s meeting with the Bangladeshi reporters took place on the day that results came out from the West Bengal assembly elections, which the BJP won. Asked whether the change of government in Kolkata might create momentum for progress on the long-stalled Teesta water-sharing agreement, Misri said, “I do not wish to speculate in advance.”He added that meetings of the Joint Rivers Commission and relevant technical bodies would soon be held to discuss water-sharing issues involving the Ganges, the Teesta and other rivers.On the Ganges water-sharing treaty, which is due to expire in December, Misri said the agreement had functioned effectively and that the matter would be addressed through existing institutional frameworks.The Bangladesh foreign minister himself addressed the Teesta dispute on the same day in Dhaka, where he was cautious about whether the BJP’s victory in West Bengal would change the calculus.“In West Bengal, a government has still not been formed. Unless they clarify what they are thinking or what they plan to do, it is not reasonable to expect us to read their minds,” Rahman told reporters. “Only then can we consider whether the agreement that was reached earlier can be revisited in the current situation, but for that, discussions will have to take place. We will have to do our part.”Bangladesh’s outreach to China on the Teesta project signals continuity with a diplomatic trajectory set during the interim government of Muhammad Yunus. During Muhammad Yunus’s visit to Beijing in March 2025, the interim government had explicitly welcomed Chinese participation in the TRCMRP. The joint statement from the Yunus visit marked the first time Bangladesh had formally welcomed China’s role in the Teesta project in a bilateral document.In June 2025, after a five-day visit to China by a BNP delegation, party secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir told reporters that the party would consider China’s Teesta proposal positively if it came to power. “We explained our needs and requirements regarding this project, and they responded positively,” Fakhrul said.India has long opposed China’s involvement in the Teesta project, viewing it as an expansion of Beijing’s influence in a country where Chinese firms have already executed several high-profile infrastructure projects.The Teesta water-sharing agreement between India and Bangladesh has been stalled for over 15 years. In 2011, a proposed treaty on the allocation of the river’s waters was blocked by then West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee, who argued it would harm the state’s agricultural interests.Unable to secure a water-sharing pact, Bangladesh moved towards a conservation and management approach within its own territory, particularly to mitigate the effects of the dry season. The TRCMRP, estimated at around $1 billion, involves the construction of a large reservoir to store surplus monsoon run-off, deepening the Teesta’s riverbed, and building wide embankment roads along with satellite cities.China had expressed interest in the project as early as 2020. Bangladesh sought a $725 million soft loan from Beijing, but China was initially cautious about the project’s long-term financial viability. In December 2023, the Chinese ambassador said at a conference in Dhaka that China had submitted a revised proposal for phase-by-phase implementation at a lower cost.India attempted to pre-empt China’s role during Sheikh Hasina’s state visit to New Delhi in June 2024. Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced that an Indian technical team would visit Bangladesh to discuss conservation and management of the Teesta. The offer had come after then foreign secretary Vinay Kwatra visited Dhaka and offered Indian assistance for the project. Hasina herself told reporters after her subsequent China visit in July 2024 that while Beijing was ready to take on the project, she preferred India to handle it.Less than a month later, Hasina was ousted after a student-led movement forced her to flee the country and has been in self-exile in India since then.