Sri Lanka is one of the neighbouring countries of India. Both the nations are entangled in a relationship which can be called 2500 years old. India Sri Lanka have shown advancement of cooperation in developmental assistance projects for Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) which has further cemented the friendship bond between India Sri Lanka. The topic is important for the IAS Exam GS-II (Indian Polity and International Relations) syllabus.
This article will provide you with a brief introduction to India Sri Lanka relations, the areas of conflicts between the two nations and their commercial relations.
India-Sri Lanka Relations:- Download PDF Here
India – Sri Lanka Relations Latest Concerns –
- Adani Ports and Special Economic Zones Ltd (APSEZ) has received a Letter of Intent (LOI) from Sri Lankan authorities for the development and operations of West Container Terminal – WCT in Colombo. The WCT will be developed on a Build, Operate and Transfer basis for a period of 35 years as a public-private partnership.
- The project is expected to boost WCT’s container handling capacity and further consolidate Sri Lanka’s locational advantage as one of the world’s top strategic nodes along the busiest global transshipment route.
- It is expected to be mutually benefitted from the string of 7 container terminals across its 12 ports that Adani operates along the Indian coastline handling an annual volume of over 6 million TEUs (Twenty-Foot Equivalent Units).
- It will multiply and accelerate the transshipment options that will become available to serve various shipping lines and other potential port customers across the South Asian waters, benefiting both, India and Sri Lanka in multiple ways
- The Government of Srilanka decided to rebuild a demolished memorial at Jaffna University after the High Commissioner of India’s concerns.
- The demolition of a memorial paying tribute to Tamil civilians killed during the civil war between LTTE and the Sri Lankan Army in 2009 has brought attention to unaddressed issues of minority rights of Tamilians in Srilanka again in the India-Srilanka relations.
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Background of India Sri Lanka Relations
India has ancient links with Sri Lanka since the rule of Emperor Ashoka. The relationship between the two countries has built upon a legacy of:
- Intellectual Intercourse
- Cultural Intercourse
- Religious Intercourse and
- Linguistic Intercourse.
Relations between the two countries have also matured and diversified with the passage of time, encompassing all areas of contemporary relevance. The shared cultural and social heritage of the two countries and the extensive people to people interaction of their citizens provide the foundation to build a multi-faceted partnership.
In recent years, the relationship has been marked by the following:
- Close contacts at the highest political level
- Growing trade and investment
- Cooperation in the fields of:
- Culture and
- Defence, as well as
- Broad understanding on major issues of international interest.
Conflicts in India Sri Lanka Relations
Despite cordial relations in the past, contemporary relations have been plagued by many incidents that have strained the cordial relations between the two nations. The main factors which have contributed to the strained relations between the two countries are:
|Areas of Conflicts between India Sri Lanka|
|The Fisherman Issue|
|Intervention of India in the Sri Lankan Civil War|
|Indo-Sri Lankan Accord|
India Sri Lanka Issue – The Fishermen Issue
Arrest of Indian fishermen on the Sri Lankan side of the International Maritime Boundary Line (IMBL) in the Palk Straits and the Gulf of Mannar by Sri Lankan authorities has been a long-standing problem with the Sri Lankan Navy firing on Indian fishing vessels. The catch on the Sri Lankan side is better both in terms of quality (high-value prawns) and quantity. The issue started because of Indian fishermen having used mechanised trawlers, which deprived the Sri Lankan fishermen (including Tamils) of their catch and damaged their fishing boats. The Sri Lankan government wants India to ban use of mechanized trawlers in the Palk Strait region, and negotiations on this subject are undergoing. So far, no concrete agreement has been reached since India favours regulating these trawlers instead of banning them altogether.
Aspirants of UPSC exam can stay up to date with the information on the relation between India and other countries from the links provided below-
India Sri Lanka Issue – Indian intervention in the Sri-Lankan civil War
In the 1970’s-1980’s, Sri-Lanka was plunged into a civil war with Tigers of Tamil Eelam, a separatist insurgent force, on one side and the Sri-Lankan Government on the other. It was also believed that certain elements in the Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW), one of India’s many Central and Investigative Agencies, and private politicians were funding these insurgents. India faced growing resentment against its own Tamil populations in 1987. An influx of refugees from Sri Lanka further made matters worse. Hence, India took the decision to intervene directly in the Sri Lankan Civil War. The Tamils in the Jaffna region were supplied by economic blockade and military assaults, despite military assaults and economic blockade by the Sri Lankan government. After several rounds of negotiation, India and Sri Lanka entered into an agreement which would grant a degree of regional autonomy in the Tamil areas and called for Tamil militants in laying down their arms. Further India was to send a peacekeeping force, named the IPKF to oversee the disarmament and ensure stability in the region.
According to experts well-versed in Indian foreign policy, Indian intervention in Sri Lankan civil war was inevitable as that civil war threatened India’s “unity, national interest and territorial integrity”. This threat came in two ways: On the one hand external powers could take advantage of the situation to establish their base in Sri Lanka thus posing a threat to India, on the other the LTTE’s dream of a sovereign Tamil Eelam comprising of all the Tamil inhibited areas, including that of mainland India, posed a threat to India’s territorial integrity.
The result was that the LTTE now found itself engaged in military conflict with the Indian Army. The conflict between the LTTE and the Indian Army left over 1,000 Indian soldiers dead.
The Indo-Sri Lankan Accord, which had been unpopular amongst Sri Lankans for giving India a major influence, now became a source of nationalist anger and resentment as the IPKF was drawn fully into the conflict. Sri Lankans protested the presence of the IPKF, and the newly elected Sri Lankan president Ranasinghe Premadasa demanded its withdrawal, which was completed by March 1990. On May 21, 1991, Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated and the LTTE was alleged to be the perpetrator. As a result, India declared the LTTE to be a terrorist outfit in 1992. Bilateral relations improved in the 1990s and India supported the peace process but has resisted calls to get involved again.
The conflict officially ended on 19th May 2009, with the President Mahinda Rajapaksa delivering a victory address to the Sri Lankan Parliament stating that “Sri Lanka is liberated from terrorism”. The leader of LTTE, Velupillai Prabhakaran, was eliminated a day before on 18th May 2009. The conflict had left 80,000-100,000 dead on both sides with about 800,000 being internally displaced.
India-Sri Lanka Commercial Relations
Sri Lanka has long been a priority destination for direct investment from India. Sri Lanka is one of India’s largest trading partners in SAARC (South Asian Association of Regional Cooperation). Trade between the two countries grew particularly rapidly after the entry into force of the India-Sri Lanka Free Trade Agreement in March 2000. According to Sri Lankan Customs, bilateral trade in 2018 amounted to US $ 4.93 billion.
- Exports from India to Sri Lanka in 2018 were US$ 4.16billion, while exports from Sri Lanka to India are US$ 767 million. The main items of exports from Sri Lanka to India are: Base Oil, Poultry feeds, Areca nuts, (waste and scrap) paper or paperboard, Pepper, Ignition Wiring Sets, Copper wire, Marble, travertine and alabaster.
- Main items of Imports from India to Sri Lanka are: Gas oil/ Diesel, Motorcycles, Pharmaceutical
Products, Portland cement, Semi finished products of Iron, Military weapon, Fuel oil, Rice, Cement clinkers, Kerosene Type jet Fuel.
- India is one of the largest investors in Sri Lanka with cumulative investments of around USD 1.239 billion. The investments are in diverse areas including petroleum retail, IT, financial services, real estate, telecommunication, hospitality & tourism, banking and food processing (tea & fruit juices), copper and other metal industries), tires, cement, glass manufacturing, and infrastructure development (railway, power, water supply).
India Sri Lanka – Development Cooperation
Sri Lanka is among the major recipients of development assistance from the Government of India.India’s overall commitment stands close to US$ 3 billion, out of which around US$ 560 million are purely in grants. The Indian Housing Project, with an initial commitment to build 50,000 houses for the war affected as well as the estate workers in the plantation areas, is Government of India (GoI)’s flagship project of developmental assistance to Sri Lanka. With an overall commitment of over Indian rupees (INR) 1372 crore in grants, it is one of the largest projects undertaken by GoI abroad. At the moment, all the committed 46,000 houses in the Northern and Eastern Provinces have been completed.
India – Sri Lanka (Security Co-operation)
- Sri Lankan military personnel are trained by India.
- Joint Military training exercise between Indian Army and Sri Lankan Army was conducted from December 1 to 14, 2019 at Foreign Training Node (FTN) in Pune. This military training exercise between Indian Army and Sri Lankan Army is known as ‘Mitra Shakti.’ ‘Mitra Shakti 2019’ was the 7th edition of the Joint Military training between Indian and Sri Lankan Army. Further information on the Mitra Shakti Exercise is available on the linked page.
- Check out the list of Indian Army Exercises given on the link.
- The focus was on achieving the desired level of interoperability and cohesive operational ability of the troops from both India and Sri Lanka through mutual exchange of operational experience and best practices.
- India has exported Military hardware to Sri Lanka.
- 7th Bilateral Maritime Exercise between Indian Navy and Sri Lankan Navy was held from 7th September 2019 to 12th September 2019. It was a 6 day joint exercise conducted off the coast of Visakhapatnam. Indian Navy was represented by ‘INS Khukri’ and Naval Offshore Patrol Vessel ‘INS Sumedha.’ The Sri Lankan Navy was represented by Advanced Offshore Patrol Vessel SLNS Sindhurala and SLNS Suranimala. This regularly conducted Maritime Exercise between Indian Navy and Sri Lankan Navy is known as ‘SLINEX.’
Also, check out the following relevant links for your preparation-
- FDI Confidence Index
- Global Innovation Index
- Dedicated Freight Corridors (DFC)
- SITMEX: Indian Navy | Indian Navy Maritime Exercises
- Malabar Annual Trilateral Naval Exercise
India-Sri Lanka Relations – Some of the Issues
- Sri Lanka had handed over the strategic Hambantota Port to China on a 99-year lease. Although Chinese took control of the port by projecting an image of commercial operations, the security establishment in India was worried about China using the Hambantota port for Military operations. Moreover, Chinese Submarines have been spotted at Hambantota Port.
- Joint venture for running the Mattala Rajapaksa International Airport with India has not moved forward in desired direction. Mattala Airport is not far from Hambantota port, which is operated by China.
- Indian Public Sector Undertaking National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) was supposed to undertake the Sampur Thermal Power Station Project located in Eastern Province of Sri Lanka. Due to environmental issues the project was cancelled.
- In January, 2021, India sent a batch of 500,000 COVID-19 vaccines to Sri Lanka.
India-Sri Lanka Relations:- Download PDF Here
Frequently Asked Questions on India-Sri Lanka Relations
Q 1. How are India-Sri Lanka diplomatic ties?
Q 2. How are the commercial relations between India and Sri Lanka?
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