Time for Sri lanka, India to mend the gaps
Sri lankan President Maithripala Sirisena's ongoing maiden tour to India should mark the beginning of a new chapter in bilateral ties between the two countries. In the recent past, they have dealt with challenges in their relations with the other, but now, with new Governments in both New Delhi and Colombo, the time is ripe for a fresh start. From the Indian side, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has already signalled that the sub-continent is an important pillar of his foreign policy — of course, his predecessors had also made similar pronouncements, but Mr Modi is expected to walk the talk.
The previous UPA regime had lost much strategic space in the island nation, after it let its coalition allies hold foreign policy hostage to parochial political concerns. Hence, we saw the Manmohan Singh Government sit by idly as the international community repeatedly censured Colombo for ‘war crimes’ after the military defeat of the liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam terror group. On the Sri lankan side, former President Mahinda Rajapaksa's increasing closeness to China irked many in India. As Beijing poured millions of dollars in large and sometimes strategic (such as the Hambantota port that, incidentally, was first offered to India) infrastructure projects in Sri lanka, New Delhi worried about being encircled by a ‘string of a pearls'.
The docking of a Chinese ship at a lankan port late last year escalated those concerns manifold. Under President Sirisena, New Delhi expects Colombo to make some course-corrections in this regard. Notably, Sri lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremasinghe has also traditionally had better relations with India as well as the West —which, in turn, should be visible in the new Government's foreign engagements. That said, it will be unrealistic to expect China's footprints to wholly disappear from Sri lanka. The former has struck deep roots in that nation, and India will have to contend with it — at least for the time being, given that it itself doesn't have the resources to match the Chinese might.
In terms of expectations and deliverables from the trip, it is unlikely that there will be any major development right away because, as Colombo has already said, this is just a familiarisation tour. So, one can rule out contentious issues such as Tamil rights. Also Prime Minister Modi will be travelling to Sri lanka in less than four weeks from now. If there any major announcements to be made, they will possibly come at that time. On this trip, we can expect some further movement on ongoing projects. For example, India has already been helping Sri lanka re-build its war-torn, Tamil-majority Northern Province, and now Sri lankan Resettlement Minister DM Swaminathan, who is accompanying President Sirisena, will reportedly seek Indian assistance for the construction of 20,000 houses for Tamil plantation workers in the Central Province.
One area that has seen some progress is nuclear commerce. Since last May, the two countries had been talking about civil nuclear commerce — and this included Sri lankan concerns about the Kudankulam plant and the impact the island nation may suffer in case of a nuclear accident. With the signing of the civil nuclear pact, both countries are ready to move foward on the issue.