President Anura Kumara Dissanayake’s first State visit to India starting today marks yet another historic milestone in the age-old links between the two neighbouring nations. It is also President Dissanayake’s first official visit abroad. It also adheres to a time-honoured tradition among Sri Lankan leaders to choose India for their first official foreign visit. Indeed, over the years, the relationship has grown by leaps and bounds regardless of the parties and persons in power in both Colombo and New Delhi.
It must be recalled that the President visited India on an official invitation extended by the Indian Government some time ago, while he was still an election candidate. During that visit, he met Indian External Affairs Minister (EAM) Dr. S. Jaishankar and several other Indian leaders. This visit was, perhaps, the first indication that India had a clear understanding of electoral dynamics in Sri Lanka and the Sri Lankan public’s yearning for a new kind of leadership.
During the current three-day visit, he will hold bilateral talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, EAM Dr. Jaishankar and several other political leaders and top officials on issues of mutual interest. President Dissanayake will also participate in a business event in New Delhi to promote investment and commercial linkages between India and Sri Lanka. This will be a significant aspect of the visit, given the close trade and investment links between the two countries. He will visit Bodh Gaya, the cradle of Buddhism in India, as part of the visit.
It is an irrefutable fact that Sri Lanka is India’s closest maritime neighbour in the Indian Ocean Region (IOR) and holds a central place in Prime Minister Modi’s vision of Security and Growth for All in the Region (SAGAR) and India’s ‘Neighbourhood First’ policy. After all, at one point, the two neighbours are separated by just 20 Km of ocean. It is impossible for both countries to ignore this geographical reality.
India also gave Sri Lanka the “greatest gift” of Buddhism during Emperor Asoka’s reign. Ever since, the two countries have forged close links along religious, ethnic, cultural, commercial, and political lines. In more modern times, these have been buttressed by people-to-people contact thanks to increased air and sea connectivity. A land bridge too has been proposed to link the two countries.
India was often the first country to come to Sri Lanka’s aid in any emergency. When the Covid-19 pandemic struck in early 2020, India was the first country to donate vaccines to Sri Lanka. In fact, the then newly-appointed Indian High Commissioner to Sri Lanka Gopal Baglay arrived to take up his post in Colombo in one of the Indian Air Force aircraft carrying vaccines and other relief supplies.
Fast forward to 2022, when the economic crisis plunged Sri Lanka to the depths of despair, India came forward with a US$ 4 billion package to purchase essentials and implement other relief measures. When the organic farming fiasco almost precipitated a famine in Sri Lanka, India was the first to provide stocks of chemical fertiliser to reverse the alarming trend. No Sri Lankan can easily forget these gestures, which certainly helped the country to ride out the storm.
There, however, are a few issues that the two countries must resolve via diplomacy and discussions. The Indo-Lanka fisheries dispute is perhaps the main contentious issue. Fishermen from both countries are known to cross the International Maritime Boundary Line (IMBL), but Sri Lankan fishermen are disproportionately affected as some Indian fishermen use mechanised trawlers that haul in entire schools of fish on the Sri Lankan side. Fishermen from both countries, the provincial authorities in Tamil Nadu and Sri Lanka’s Northern Province and the two Central Governments must work diligently to find a lasting solution to this perennial issue. We hope that the fisheries issue will figure prominently in President Dissanayake’s talks in New Delhi.
Doubts have also been raised about the implementation of some Indian-led development projects in Sri Lanka due to political developments elsewhere. Again, discussions are the best way forward to launch these projects covering renewable energy, logistics, marine transport and a few other areas.
It is also time for both countries to place more emphasis on people-to-people contact. The Ramayana Trail has become enormously popular among Indians, while thousands of Sri Lankans go on pilgrimage to Buddhist sites in India every year. Sri Lanka already offers visa-free entry to Indians, but Sri Lankans still need to apply for e-visas to enter India. Given that India already allows visa-free entry to citizens of neighbouring Maldives, Nepal and Bhutan, it is high time that Sri Lanka began negotiations for the same facility.
We cannot also ignore geopolitical realities that have placed Sri Lanka in a somewhat awkward, yet strategic, position. India is undoubtedly a regional power, along with China. Sri Lanka has so far deftly managed to steer clear of any geopolitical tensions by strictly following a policy of Non-Alignment. But this does not mean that Sri Lanka should stay away from trying to ease regional tensions and playing a role on the world stage. Many international relations experts say that Sri Lanka is in the best position to move ahead with efforts to revive the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC), which held its last Summit exactly 10 years ago. SAARC remains dormant as a result of differences between India and Pakistan, two of its biggest founding members. But this should not be the case. If these issues can be ironed out, SAARC can even follow in the footsteps of the European Union to become a unified zone. Diplomacy is indeed the best solution to make our region safer and better.
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