Ranil’s special relationship with India and the peace process

Ranil gave a very special place towards relations with India. He obviously knew its political leaders and most of the important officials intimately. He knew a great deal about their background and not only of their politics. I was often surprised with his deep knowledge of Indian political alliances and even personal family relationships. He had visited many times in both north and south and had friends from Kerala to Bihar. He never missed, when in Delhi, paying a call on those who had become over time, his personal friends.

- (Excerpted from ‘Rendering Unto Caesar’ by Bradman Weerakoon)

He always met in their homes I K Gujral, former Indian prime minister and Sonia Gandhi, leader of the Congress party. In addition, of course he had numerous opportunities of talking, lunching and dining with the former PM, Atal Behari Vajpayee, L K Advani, the virtual brain behind the BJP, former foreign minister Yashwant Sinha, Jaswant Singh, the former minister of finance and several of the excellent younger ministers of the Cabinet. The relationships were easy between Ranil and these men, and they seemed to enjoy each other's company and the frequent visits of the Sri Lankan leadership.

In between Ranil's visits, Milinda (Moragoda) would 'keep the home fires burning’ with hurried dashes to the Indian capital. Both India and Sri Lanka had fine representatives at the time Nirupama Sen, a senior and thoroughly experienced professional of India in Colombo and the genteel and urbane Mangala Moonesinghe of Sri Lanka in New Delhi. They worked without much fuss and bother keeping the lines between the two capitals clear and following up diligently on the many new initiatives which Ranil was zealously pursuing.

Two of the more important of these were the possibility of entering into a defence agreement and moving forward on the Free Trade Agreement towards a Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA). Discussions on consolidating the training and procurement arrangements with India into a defence pact surfaced during the last of Ranil's visits to New Delhi in October 2003. In fact these arrangements had been in force ever since the Indo-Sri Lanka Accord of July 29, 1987. In the letters exchanged between Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and President Jayewardene, which became an annexure to the Accord, it was agreed that India would "provide training facilities and military supplies for the Sri Lankan security forces".