An agreement on the long-standing Teesta river water sharing issue between India and Bangladesh was 'round the corner', external affairs minister S M Krishna on Tuesday said.
"I think an agreement is round the corner," he told reporters during the briefing on the 11th Ministers' meeting of the Indian Ocean RIM Association of Regional Cooperation (IOR-ARC) in Bangalore.
Responding to a question, Krishna said he had a discussion on the issue with Bangladesh foreign minister Dipu Moni, in Bangalore to attend the meeting of the 19-member regional grouping. Krishna said India hoped to come to a settlement on the matter. The two neighbours were scheduled to sign an agreement on the Teesta issue during Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's visit to Bangladesh in September, but strong objections by West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee over the draft, prompted India to back off at the last minute.
Banerjee had also pulled out of the Prime Minister's entourage, casting a shadow on the historic visit. During the SAARC summit in Maldives last week, Singh told his Bangladesh counterpart Sheik Hasina that there was still some need for consensus in the country on the issue and that the interest of all concerned, including West Bengal, should be taken care of.