India – Sri Lanka Relations

Context:

India extended a $1 billion credit facility to Sri Lanka to assist the island nation through its worst foreign exchange crisis and enable it to procure food, medicines and essential items.

Relevance:

GS-II: International Relations (Important Foreign Policies and Agreements affecting India’s Interests)

Dimensions of the Article:

1. India – Sri Lanka Relations
2. History of India-Sri Lanka relations
3. Indian intervention in the Sri Lankan civil war
4. Geopolitical Significance of Sri Lanka

India – Sri Lanka Relations

• India and Sri Lanka share a maritime border and India is the only neighbour of Sri Lanka, separated by the Palk Strait.
• Both nations occupy a strategic position in South Asia and have sought to build a common security umbrella in the Indian Ocean.
• Both India and Sri Lanka are republics within the Commonwealth of Nations.
• In recent years, the relationship has been marked by close contacts at all levels. Trade and investment have grown and there is cooperation in the fields of infrastructure development, education, culture and defence.
• In recent years, significant progress in implementation of developmental assistance projects has further cemented the bonds of friendship between the two countries.
• The nearly three-decade long armed conflict between the Sri Lankan forces and the LTTE came to an end in 2009. During the course of the conflict, India supported the right of the Sri Lankan Government to act against terrorist forces.
• India’s consistent position has been in favour of a negotiated political settlement, which is acceptable to all communities within the framework of a united Sri Lanka and is consistent with democracy, pluralism and respect for human rights.

History of India-Sri Lanka relations

• India-Sri Lanka relations date back to over 2,500 years, with the Kingdoms in Sri Lanka engaging in continuous wars with occupying South Indian Kingdoms.
• According to traditional Sri Lankan chronicles (such as the Dipavamsa), Buddhism was introduced into Sri Lanka in the 4th century BCE by Venerable Mahinda, the son of Indian Emperor Ashoka. Sri Lanka has the longest continuous history of Buddhism of any Buddhist nation.
• Tamils in Sri Lanka, had established Hinduism and Tamil language links with South India.

Indian intervention in the Sri Lankan civil war

• In the 1970s–1980s, private entities and elements in the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) and the state government of Tamil Nadu were believed to be encouraging the funding and training for the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, a separatist insurgent force.
• In 1987, faced with growing anger amongst its own Tamils, and a flood of refugees, India intervened directly in the conflict for the first time.
• After subsequent negotiations, India and Sri Lanka entered into an agreement (13th amendment.)
• The peace accord assigned a certain degree of regional autonomy in the Tamil areas with Eelam People’s Revolutionary Liberation Front (EPRLF) controlling the regional council and called for the Tamil militant groups to lay down their arms.
• Further India was to send a peacekeeping force, named the IPKF to Sri Lanka to enforce the disarmament and to watch over the regional council.
• Most Tamil militant groups accepted this agreement, however, the LTTE rejected the accord because they opposed a candidate.
• The result was that the LTTE now found itself engaged in military conflict with the Indian Army.
• The government of India then decided that the IPKF should disarm the LTTE by force, and the Indian Army launched a number of assaults on the LTTE, including a month-long campaign dubbed Operation Pawan to wrest control of the Jaffna peninsula from the LTTE.
• 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.

Geopolitical Significance of Sri Lanka

• Sri Lanka’s location in the Indian Ocean region as an island State has been of strategic geopolitical relevance to several major powers.
• Some examples that highlight Western interests in Sri Lanka’s strategic location are the British Defence and External Affairs Agreement of 1948, and the Maritime Agreement with USSR of 1962.
• Even during the J.R Jayewardene (1978-1989) and Ranasinghe Premadasa (1989-1993) tenures, Sri Lanka was chosen to build the Voice of America transmitting station (suspected of being used for intelligence gathering purposes and electronic surveillance of the Indian Ocean).
• It was the massive Chinese involvement during the Rajapaksa tenure that garnered the deepest controversy in recent years.
• China is building state of the art gigantic modern ports all along the Indian Ocean to the south of it, in Gwadar (Pakistan), Chittagong (Bangladesh, Kyauk Phru (Myanmar) and Hambantota (Sri Lanka).
• China’s string of pearl’s strategy is aimed at encircling India to establish dominance in the Indian Ocean.
• Post 2015, Sri Lanka still relies heavily on China for Port city project and for continuation of Chinese funded infrastructure projects in Sri Lanka.
• Although the Hambantota harbour is reportedly making losses, it too has potential for development due to its strategic location.
• Sri Lanka has a list of highly strategic ports located among busiest sea lanes of communication.
• Sri Lanka’s Colombo Port is the 25th busiest container port in the world and the natural deep-water harbor at Trincomalee is the fifth largest natural harbour in the world.
• Port city of Trincomalee was the main base for Eastern Fleet and British Royal Navy during the Second World War.
• Sri Lanka’s location can thus serve both commercial and industrial purposes and be used as a military base.

-Source: The Hindu