Time, patience, statesmanship will solve Teesta issue: PC

Kolkata, Sep 21 (PTI) Union Home Minister P Chidambaram
Wednesday expressed confidence that issues of Teesta river
water sharing and access to India from Bangladesh will be
solved 'given time, patience and some degree of
statesmanship'.
"The Teesta water sharing issue is unresolved as is
the issue of access to India across Bangladesh. But I am
confident that given time, patience and confidence and some
degree of statesmanship, the two problems will be solved,'' he
said at a special session of the Bharat Chamber of Commerce.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's recent visit to
Bangladesh was a major effort to build relation with that
country which India had helped find feet in 1971, he said.
India had been able to resolve the Tinbigha problem
with Bangaldesh in a spirit of 'give and take,' he said
and observed 'we haven't given or taken much. It required a
certain amount of statesmanship to give a little and take a
little'.
It took 51 years to solve the problem of undemarcated
boundaries with Bangladesh, including Tinbigha, he said.
"With a little give and take, we have been able to
find solutions to these problems and I compliment all the
chief ministers of the bordering states for standing shoulder-
to-shoulder with the Government of India in resolving the
issues."
Chidambaram said that never in the last 40 years India
and Bangladesh had been so close to forging the strongest of
relationships for mutual benefit.
India should seize this opportunity to further
strengthen ties with its eastern neighbour, just as it has
done with Bhutan and Sri Lanka and hopes to do with Nepal.
Observing that India was in a troubled geographical
location, he stressed on the need to improve relation with
neighbouring countries.
"We can choose our friends, but not our neighbours. We
can make history but cannot unmake geography. Therefore we
need to build on what we have," he said.