It is up to India to convince Bangladesh that greater economic integration is in mutual interest. If India cannot act in its own self-interest in economic cooperation, it has no right to expect the same from Bangladesh.

Fifth, Manmohan Singh should strongly resist the temptation to link trade openings to Dhaka’s actions on India’s security concerns. For India both economics and security are of equal interest in dealing with Bangladesh.

By establishing a linkage between the two all these years, India has lost out on both. India needs to pursue both of its main interests in Bangladesh on their own merit.

By offering a virtual carte blanche on economic cooperation, India creates space for Dhaka to act on its own on the security front. If Dhaka does not respond, Delhi has a range of other instrumentalities to encourage Bangladesh to respect India’s concerns on cross-border terrorism.

Failure to act now would leave New Delhi in a much a more intractable situation when the next opportunity arises for a substantive engagement with Bangla political leadership.