India’s Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla arrived at Bandaranaike International Airport north of Colombo on Saturday evening. This is his first visit to one of India’s closest neighbours in the Indian Ocean since he took charge at the South Block in New Delhi in January. Incidentally, Sri Lanka also lifted the Covid-19 induced curbs on the movement of people on Saturday and the Colombo roads were full of vehicles. Shringla will be in Sri Lanka till Tuesday and is expected to travel to Kandy, Trincomalee and Jaffna during his visit.
His visit signals India’s willingness to once again woo Sri Lanka which it feels is moving towards China. Shringla will be meeting Sri Lanka’s President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa, Foreign Minister Prof. GL Peiris and some other dignitaries to boost bilateral ties.
In the last two years, the India–Sri Lanka relationship has come under severe strain for various reasons and the experts feel that both are now trying to put it back on track.
Sri Lanka is one of the worst Covid-19 affected countries and the back-to-back lockdowns have almost ruined its once booming economy. Fast depleting foreign reserves, inflation, ban on imports, rising unemployment, lack of vaccines have forced Sri Lanka to go back to China, its biggest investor and donor, causing uneasiness in New Delhi.
Sri Lanka’s foreign secretary Retired Admiral Jayanth Colombage said that this visit is expected to contribute towards consolidating the longstanding multifaceted relations and enhance bilateral partnerships between two countries.
During the fag-end of previous Sri Lankan government, the relationship started deteriorating and the same continued during the current regime. Sri Lanka’s decision not to handover the East Container Terminal (ECT) at Colombo port to India and Japan angered India and the subsequent actions by both the countries added to already prevailing trust deficit.
During the peak of Covid-19, India had sent vaccines to Sri Lanka. But, the hue and cry over India exporting vaccines to other countries forced New Delhi to stop the supply abruptly, making Sri Lanka depending on China once again – for both medicines and money.
In the last two months, there has been a visible change in the attitude of two nations towards each other and both seem to have realised their mistakes. After almost a year’s delay, Sri Lanka’s High Commissioner to India Milinda Moragoda took charge in New Delhi signaling this. After his assumption of charge, foreign secretary flying to Sri Lanka has sent out a strong message that India is willing to amend its relationship.
The work on India’s Adani group-backed West Container Terminal (WCT) at Colombo port has also begun at the same time proving the same. India is also discussing its involvement in power, infrastructure, technology, medical sciences and monetary aspects to checkmate China.
The Tamil issue still remains the key subject and Sri Lanka expects India to understand its internal problems. The Tamil political parties are putting pressure on India not to yield to Sri Lankan government pressures and it has to be seen how New Delhi handles this complex issue.
The foreign policy experts in Sri Lanka believe that both share civilizational ties and no amount of Chinese money can alter or hamper that, if both play their cards carefully and keep this aspect in mind all the times.
A serving Sri Lankan diplomat, who did not wish to be identified said: “Wherever I go or whoever I meet in India, people ask me the same question about growing influence of China in Sri Lanka. If India can’t beat China in money matters, they can beat them in other things. The civilizational ties, Buddhism and geographical location etc can’t be altered by China or anyone. Why is India not doing much or understanding this?”
During Shringla’s visit, India and Sri Lanka will carry out a 12-day mega military exercise from Monday with a focus on enhancing counter-terror cooperation, according to a PTI report. It will also send a message to China, locals feel.
The eighth edition of the ‘Mitra Shakti’ exercise will be conducted at Combat Training School in Sri Lanka’s Ampara from October 4 to 15. “The aim of the exercise is to promote close relations between armies of both countries and enhance inter-operability and sharing best practices in counter-insurgency and counter-terrorism operations,” the Sri Lankan Defence ministry said.
The ministry said an all arms contingent of 120 personnel of the Indian Army will participate in the exercise along with a battalion-strength contingent of the Sri Lankan Army. “The exercise will involve tactical level operations at sub-unit level in an international counter-insurgency and counter-terrorism environment,” it said in a statement.
The ministry said that the exercise will go a long way in further strengthening the relationship between both the South Asian nations and will act as a catalyst in bringing synergy and cooperation at the grassroots level between both armies.
Sri Lanka was rocked by a series of deadly bomb blasts in April 2019 in which over 300 people were killed. In the backdrop of the blasts, India and Sri Lanka enhanced their anti-terror cooperation.
The seventh edition of the Mitra Shakti exercise was conducted at Foreign Training Node (FTN) in Pune in 2019.
In addition to these, the BJP leader and MP Dr. Subramanian Swamy will be visiting Sri Lanka in the coming week as a guest of the ruling Rajapaksa family. According to him, his old friends Rajapaksas have invited him to celebrate Navaratri with them.
Once India and Sri Lanka come out of Covid-19 crisis, there will be a clarity on all issues pertaining to bilateral relations, hope diplomatic circles in New Delhi and Colombo.
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