Diplomacy of South Asia’s neighbours: India and Sri Lanka rebuilding their long-term historic relati

By Srimal Fernando and 

Megha Gupta

India and Sri Lanka in their foreign relations have come a long way due to India’s Neighbourhood First policy. This relationship is not just attributable to their physical proximity but also because of their similar cultural and historical heritage. 

Over the past few years India’s foreign policy initiatives have strengthened its focus on South Asian geopolitics. The other seven South Asian countries, particularly Sri Lanka, has been one of the top priorities of India. This can be reiterated with the current administrations two-time visit to Sri Lanka, one being in 2015 and the next in 2017. 

On the first visit by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, a new direction in the relationship had been seen as India had shown support for an integrated Sri Lanka while ensuring the support for the minority Tamil community. 

To rehabilitate and resettle the 800,000 Internally-Displaced People in the Tamil majority Northern and Eastern Provinces, the Indian Government has taken a large number of development projects, especially the Northern Province railway line which was inaugurated during the visit too. This relationship was at its peak with four high-level visits between Sri Lanka and India occurring within a span of 60 days. 

The second visit by the Indian Prime Minister had been a greater success as the celebration of the Buddhist festival Vesak Day was the purpose of the tour which shows the acceptance of ethnic diversity in Sri Lanka by India along with this a number of infrastructure and port projects had also been finalised. Hence, a transformation in the diplomatic relation between the two can be witnessed and they are willing to further improve it in the future. 

Since the Indo-Sri Lanka Free Trade Agreement coming into effect in 2000, there has been a wide range of goods being traded between both the countries. In South Asia, Sri Lanka has been India’s second largest trading partner and globally for Sri Lanka, India has been its third. This trade and economic ties has also been further reinforced in other multilateral forums such as South Asian Free Trade Agreement (SAFTA), Asia Pacific Trade Agreement (APTA), Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multicultural, Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMTSEC) and Global System Trade Preferences (GSTP). 

India’s total investment aid to Sri Lanka now exceeds about $ 2.5 billion of which $436 million is the grant. Sri Lanka still continues to be as a top tourist spot for the Indians with about 400,000 Indians visiting Sri Lanka in 2017. This number continues to be growing with Sri Lanka targeting about 4.4 lakhs in 2018. Furthermore, the defence ties between the two has also seen a leap as on 22 March, India had delivered the second advanced offshore patrol vessel SLNS Sindurala to the Sri Lankan Navy.Looking back at the political history of Sri Lanka and India, the bond has heralded positive changes. India post-independence under Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru took the path of Non-Alignment and had believed in peaceful coexistence with its neighbours, similarly even the fourth Prime Minister of Sri Lanka S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike, the founder of Sri Lanka Freedom Party followed by Sirimavo Bandaranaike from 1956-’77 had adopted a friendly relation with India and followed the path of Non-Alignment. 

The previous administration in Sri Lanka had considered India to be a regional hegemon and a threat but the latter had preferred improving its tie with India. In June 1974, around 1.5 lakh persons were granted citizenship and the maritime boundary issues were resolved due to the personal relationship between Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and Prime Minister Sirimavo Bandaranaike.

In 1983, following the anti-Tamil riots in Sri Lanka, Gandhi had not supported the Tamil separatists cause but had shown concern for the Tamil safety. Whereas the successive Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi had shown direct support for the separatists and was keen on finding a political solution. India had shown the support by carrying out the ‘Operation Poomolai’ where they had airdropped humanitarian supplies in the city of Jaffna.

Following this the Indo-Sri Lanka Peace Accord of 1987 between the Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and Sri Lanka Prime Minister J.R. Jayewardene was initiated to find a solution to the Sri Lankan civil war but it had failed as the LTTE had felt to be uninvolved in the peace talk. Since 1987, the diplomatic relationship between these two countries has positively grown with the increased collaboration between Prime Minister Modi and Sirisena in 2014 and then with the successive Prime Minister Wickremesinghe 2015 onwards.

With India’s ‘Neighbourhood First’ policy the historical ties between India and Sri Lanka has been strengthened and both can see a strong strategic future. The ties between the two has displayed signs of maturity as they moved past their past and ventured towards developing an understanding relationship.

As India and Sri Lanka have had stable democracies over the past 70 years, they have had the advantage of settling their political and ethnic matters in a democratic manner. This factor will affirm their continued support for one another and in turn encourage them to promote prosperity in the South Asian region. 

(Srimal Fernando is a research scholar at Jindal School of International Affairs, India and an Editor of Diplomatic Society for South Africa. Megha Gupta is a scholar of Masters in Diplomacy, Law, Business at Jindal School of International Affairs, India.)