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Sri Lanka - India Relations

India and Sri Lanka share common values and traditions as well as a common commitment to democratic governance. Both countries have taken a similar trajectory in international relations, having emerged from the colonial yoke, India in August 1947 and Sri Lanka five months later in February 1948. Since then, the two independent nations of India and Sri Lanka have proceeded to renew and reinvigorate age old cultural, commercial and strategic links for the mutual benefit of the two nations and their peoples.

India is Sri Lanka's closest neighbor. The relationship between the two countries is more than 2,500 years old and both sides have built upon a legacy of intellectual, cultural, religious 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 civilizational 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 close contacts at the highest political level, growing trade and investment, cooperation in the fields of development, education, culture and defence, as well as a broad understanding on major issues of international interest.

The two most important factors in Sri Lanka's foreign relations since 1948 have been a commitment in principle to nonalignment and the necessity of preserving satisfactory relations with India without sacrificing independence. India had almost fifty times Sri Lanka's land area and population and forty times its gross national product in the late 1980s. Its point of view could not be ignored, but neither the country's political leaders nor the person in the street (especially if he or she were Sinhalese) wanted the island to become an appendage to India's regional power ambitions. The July 29, 1987, Indo-Sri Lankan Accord and the involvement of a large number of Indian troops in the northeast, however, seemed to many if not most Sri Lankans to be an unacceptable compromise of national independence.

Some observers interpreted Sri Lanka's unsuccessful bid in 1982 to gain membership in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) as an attempt to put a little comfortable distance between itself and India. The application was rejected, ostensibly on geographic grounds.

In an exchange of executive letters coinciding with the July 29, 1987, accord, President Jayewardene gave assurances to Gandhi that the port of Trincomalee would not be used by foreign powers, including the United States, and that agreements with the United States to upgrade the Voice of America facility and with Israel and Pakistan to provide military security would be reconsidered.

Although New Delhi wanted to avoid accusations that it was turning a formerly independent country into a client state, India was determined to prevent Sri Lanka from developing closer ties with unfriendly or potentially unfriendly foreign powers, such as Pakistan, Israel, and the United States. The India Today correspondent quoted a senior Indian military officer as asserting that "Pakistan's military involvement in Sri Lanka ended on July 29, 1987." But other observers wondered whether India, by cutting the Gordian knot of the Sri Lankan ethnic crisis and hoping at the same time to thwart Pakistan's ambitions, was finally exercising its full potential as one of the world's major nations or was being drawn into a military nightmare that would bring costs in men and money but few rewards.

India has been very concerned with instability in Sri Lanka and has worked quietly behind the scenes to push for faster resettlement for Tamils. India directly suffered from the spillover from the Sri Lankan conflict in 1991 when a LTTE female suicide bomber assassinated Prime Minister Rajiv Ghandi, reportedly in response to Ghandi's decision to send an Indian Peace Keeping force to Sri Lanka in 1987. Communal tensions in Sri Lanka have the ability to undermine stability in India, particularly in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu, home to 60 million Hindu Tamils. India's large Tamil population just across the Paulk Strait fuels fears among Sri Lanka's Sinhalese community, who represent 80 percent of the Sri Lankan population and are concentrated in the lower two-thirds of the country, that they could become a minority under siege. While India has no apparent interest in stoking conflict in Sri Lanka, Indian officials are reportedly increasingly concerned about their strategic role in the Indian Ocean and China's growing presence in Sri Lanka.

India and Sri Lanka remain committed to eliminate terrorism from the region, in all its forms and manifestations. In this context, Sri Lanka’s success in eliminating terrorism from its soil has opened up space and provided greater impetus for the growth of bilateral relations between India and Sri Lanka. India’s assistance in the resettling nearly 300,000 Tamil civilians who were liberated from the clutches of terrorism signals an instance of India’s support for the wellbeing of Sri Lanka and its people, especially those in the North and the East of the country. India has engaged with Sri Lanka in the massive rebuilding effort in the North and the East of the country, providing expertise and concessionary financial assistance of over 1.2 billion dollars for the reconstruction of housing, railways, airport, harbor and sports stadium in the Northern Province. Among other major projects, Indian enterprises will undertake building a power station near the strategic harbor port of Trincomalee.

Sri Lanka is India’s largest trade partner among SAARC countries. Trade between the two countries has grown rapidly after the entry into force of the India-Sri Lanka Free Trade Agreement in March 2000, bilateral trade multiplying nearly five-fold by the year 2008. Investor presence of Indian Companies in Sri Lanka has increased in the recent past with prominent Indian names such as IOC, TATA, LIC, Bharti Airtel, Piramal Glass, L&T, Ashok Leyland and Taj Hotel. Several other leading business houses in India are now exploring investment links with Sri Lanka. Similarly, some Sri Lankan blue chip Companies have already invested in flagship projects in India.

Both countries are now among Asian nations that are on higher economic growth path. Sri Lanka has seen rapid growth especially since the end of the armed conflict. Sri Lanka’s strategic location provides unique opportunities for both Sri Lanka and India to work together for greater linkages with the extra regional centers of economic activity for common benefit and advantage.

Given the proximity of the territorial waters of both countries, especially in the Palk Straits and the Gulf of Mannar, incidents of straying of fishermen are common. Both countries have agreed on certain practical arrangements to deal with the issue of bonafide fishermen of either side crossing the IMBL. Through these arrangements, it has been possible to deal with the issue of detention of fishermen in a humane manner.

India and Sri Lanka also enjoy a growing defence relationship built on extensive training and Service-to-Service linkages. The commonality of concerns of both countries, including with respect to the safety and security of their sea lanes of communication, informs their bilateral exchanges in this field.