By Sugeeswara Senadheera/Daily News
Colombo, December 14: “I am a lover of India, I am a friend of its people, and I am a follower of its greatest son, Gautama the Buddha,” President J. R. Jayewardene said at the 1986 SAARC Summit in Bangalore, which was chaired by Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi.
The close proximity of the two nations across the Palk Strait has fostered exchanges in culture, religion, trade, and politics since ancient times. Stressing the shared deep historical and cultural relationship that spans thousands of years between the two countries, President Anura Kumara Dissanayake will be making his first official foreign visit as Head of State to New Delhi this weekend.
Next Monday’s talks between the Sri Lankan President and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be aimed at laying a strong foundation for a new, robust economic partnership between the two countries for the next five years and beyond. Although when President Jayewardene made his ‘I love India’ speech in 1986, Dissanayake’s Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) had undertaken an anti-India campaign that included a boycott of Indian goods, much water has flowed in the rivers Ganges and Kelani in the interim period, and policies have undergone many a transformation.
South Asian Regional Dynamics
The India-Sri Lanka relationship, shaped by millennia of shared history and culture, has navigated periods of cooperation and conflict. As both nations adapt to the challenges of the 21st century, their partnership is likely to remain a cornerstone of South Asian regional dynamics.
Ancient trade routes linked the kingdoms of South India with Sri Lanka, with commodities like spices, pearls, and textiles being exchanged. Ports in both regions flourished due to maritime commerce. Indian independence movements inspired similar aspirations in Sri Lanka. Currently, transshipment of containers (TEUs) brings the biggest revenue to Sri Lankan ports.
Affinity between the two countries and rapport between the leaders helped resolve many vexed issues that had cropped up from time to time. The Indian-Tamil population in the central hill country in Sri Lanka became a point of contention, leading to strained relations. The 1964 Sirima-Shastri Pact and 1974 Sirima-Indira Pact resolved the issue of stateless Tamils, with 675,000 repatriated to India and the balance of 375,000 granted Sri Lankan citizenship.
The ethnic conflict escalated into a civil war between the Tamil militants and the armed forces, and India initially supported Tamil groups. Relations hit rock bottom in June 1987 when Indian planes violated Sri Lankan airspace to airdrop ‘food.’ However, the two countries later sought to mediate peace.
Post-war, India has been a key partner in Sri Lanka’s reconstruction efforts, contributing to housing, infrastructure, and education projects. India was also the first country to bail out Sri Lanka when the latter faced an unprecedented fiscal crisis in 2022. India is one of Sri Lanka’s largest trading partners, and the two nations signed a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) in 1998.
Multifaceted Partnership
In recent decades, India-Sri Lanka relations have evolved into a multifaceted partnership. While the relationship has grown stronger, some challenges remain. Sri Lanka’s balancing act between India and China has sometimes caused friction.
New Delhi talks next Monday will focus mainly on cooperation in areas like renewable energy, maritime security, and regional trade, offering opportunities for mutual benefit. India-Sri Lanka relations hold immense potential.
The required backdrop for a successful outcome of the talks next week has been worked out very carefully. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, stressing his signature policies, ‘Neighbourhood First’ and Security and Growth for All in the Region (SAGAR), sent his trusted External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar to Colombo within days of Dissanayake taking oaths as President. PM Modi, in his congratulatory message on X following the electoral victory of Dissanayake, made a special reference to the policies Neighbourhood First and SAGAR.
India realized after the 2022 Aragalaya protest against President Gotabaya Rajapaksa that Dissanayake’s JVP-led new popular alliance, National People’s Power (NPP), could be a power to reckon with. Months ahead of the Presidential Election campaign, NPP leader Dissanayake, together with shadow Foreign Minister Vijitha Herath, was invited to New Delhi. Realizing the imperative of getting into New Delhi’s good books, Dissanayake visited India and held discussions with External Affairs Minister Jaishankar and National Security Advisor Ajit Doval, among others. As Dissanayake was only a leader of a minor party with only three Members of Parliament then, he did not get an audience with PM Modi.
Interestingly, Dissanayake acknowledged in his conversation with the Indian High Commissioner, Santosh Jha, that his visit to India and discussions with Jaishankar and Doval were contributory factors to his victory. Perhaps what he had in mind was the overwhelming majority he received in the Tamil-majority North as well as in the Central hill country, where a sizable Indian-origin Tamil population voted for him.
According to Colombo official sources, New Delhi talks on December 16 will cover several issues, including grant assistance projects from India, the continuation of debt restructuring concessions, the proposed Economic and Technological Co-operation Agreement (ECTA), which replaced the earlier proposal for a Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA), people-centric digitization programmes including digital identity cards, housing projects from India, solar electrification of religious places under a grant already announced in New Delhi, agricultural development, defence cooperation, infrastructure development in the North, and collaboration in human resources development. The vexed question of Indian fishermen fishing in Sri Lanka’s territorial waters will also figure in the talks.
Geopolitical Framework
Talks on defence and security will be of interest as PM Modi is keen on his Security and Growth for All in the Region (SAGAR) policy, which outlines India’s vision and geopolitical framework of maritime cooperation in the Indian Ocean region.
Indian officials hinted that India is not likely to raise the Adani Group’s proposed investment in a wind power project in Mannar in the North as the proposal is currently faced with legal challenges. Five fundamental rights cases against this project, for environmental reasons, have been filed in the Supreme Court. The Attorney General’s Department informed the Supreme Court that the Cabinet of Ministers in the previous Government had decided to reconsider the project. In addition to this 280 MW renewable energy project, there is also a proposal for a 234 MW venture in which the Adani Group has invested in Pooneryn in the North.
A Federal Court in Brooklyn, USA, issued a five-count criminal indictment on the Adani Group last month. It was against Gautam Adani and a few others of his Renewable Energy Company.
Political analysts are watching President Dissanayake’s visit to India as it has implications beyond the bilateral relationship. For the new Sri Lankan leader, it will be an important opportunity to internationally demonstrate how far the JVP has evolved since its anti-India days and the JVP-led NPP Government’s plans for expanding cooperation with India and maintaining a healthy balance between the two Asian powers, China and India.
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