FM explains reason for rejecting Indian land connectivity bid

ECONOMYNEXT - Foreign Minister Vijitha Herath, explaining the reason for the disagreement with India over land connectivity, said economic and political disparity led to the decision amid concerns over possible division in the country.

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President Anura Kumara Dissanayake's government declined the land connectivity decision the previous Sri Lanka government had agreed with India in the past. The plan was to have a bridge between South Indian Rameshwaram and Sri Lanka's North Western Mannar, where Indian firm Adani had been planning to build a wind power plant.

Foreign Minister Herath in a TV interview last week said the current government has rejected the proposal to build the bridge between the two Asian nations.

"India has not requested this from us, but previous governments had agreed for this," Minister Herath told a weekly television programme Rathu Ira on April 25.

"If India and Sri Lanka are economically and politically at the same level, then there is no issue," he said.

"For instance, Singapore and Malaysia they are both at par economically and politically. There is no issue of sovereignty and territorial integrity with a bridge between those countries."

"But we are different from them. We are a small country. Our economical and political situations are different to that of India. In that backdrop, a project like this is not appropriate and we are not ready at this moment."