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PM Modi lands in Sri Lanka, is first foreign leader hosted by Dissanayake
The two sides are expected to finalise seven agreements, but the focus has been on a proposed memorandum of understanding on defence cooperation
COLOMBO: India and Sri Lanka are set to unveil measures to bolster cooperation in areas ranging from digitalisation to energy and defence at a meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Anura Kumara Dissanayake on Saturday, as New Delhi continues its support for the island nation’s economic recovery.
Modi, who arrived in Colombo on Friday evening after attending the Bimstec Summit in Bangkok, will be the first foreign leader to be hosted by Dissanayake since leading a coalition headed by his party, Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP), to victory in last year’s election.
Sri Lanka rolled out the red carpet for Modi, with six ministers, including foreign minister Vijitha Herath, turning out to receive him at Bandaranaike International Airport.
Though the JVP has for long been known for its historic anti-India stance, the Indian side made an outreach to Dissanayake early last year, inviting him to New Delhi months before the election. The courting of the JVP leader paid off for the Indian government when Dissanayake made New Delhi his first port of call last December after becoming president, and gave Modi an assurance that Sri Lanka wouldn’t allow its soil to be used against Indian interests.
The Indian side is hoping to build on that visit with a slew of agreements and understandings during Modi’s three-day trip, which will witness the launch of several India-backed development projects and other key outcomes such as understandings on debt restructuring and extension of a currency swap arrangement.
While the two sides are expected to finalise seven agreements, the focus has been on a proposed memorandum of understanding on defence cooperation, which will be the first such agreement between the two countries and will institutionalise joint exercises, training and high-level exchanges and possibly lead to cooperation in defence industry, people familiar with the matter said.
More significantly, the agreement will help turn the page on India’s troubled intervention in Sri Lanka’s civil war, in the form of the Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF) that was deployed in the island nation between July 1987 and March 1990. The PM will visit the IPKF Memorial in Colombo on Saturday to pay tribute to the 1,155 Indian soldiers killed in Sri Lanka.
“We are looking at consolidating our defence relationship into one document. We already cooperate with Sri Lanka in a number of areas, including maritime security, joint training and joint exercises, and this particular framework provides a sort of legal basis to continue that on a more intensive basis,” Indian high commissioner Santosh Jha said.
Other key expected outcomes include an agreement to link the electricity grids of the two countries and a tripartite understanding between India, Sri Lanka and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to build an energy hub at Trincomalee, the people said. This project will dovetail with plans to build an energy pipeline
Jha pointed to the high cost of energy in Sri Lanka and said shared prosperity is one of the goals. “It becomes important that India contributes whatever expertise we have in terms of best practices. There is also very strong emphasis on digitisation, given the transformation we have seen in India. Sri Lanka wants to replicate it, and we would be supporting, through grant assistance, a major project to roll out the Sri Lanka unique digital identity project, which is very similar to Aadhaar in India,” he said.
Modi’s visit also comes at a time when Sri Lanka is showing signs of recovery from the massive economic crisis of 2022. India extended financial aid worth more than $4 billion during the crisis and the assistance will continue with the debt restructuring and currency swap arrangement.
“India was the first to provide financial assurances for the IMF to take a decision to provide Sri Lanka with the extended fund facility. We were also the first to provide assurances to restructure debts. We joined the official creditors committee along with France and Japan,” Jha said.
Modi and Dissanayake will inaugurate several India-backed development projects and witness the virtual groundbreaking for the Sampur solar energy project. Modi is also expected to meet leaders from across the political spectrum, including Sri Lanka’s Tamil minority.
On April 6, Modi and Dissanayake will travel together to the historic city of Anuradhapura, where they will pay their respects at the Mahabodhi temple and jointly inaugurate two India-assisted railway projects.
