India-Sri Lanka: Modi visit cementing everlasting friendship

India-Sri Lanka ties are sanctified in blood by the sacrifice of 1171 Indian martyrs of Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF) to honour whom the Sri Lankan government built a memorial in Colombo. Though politically controversial, IPKF helped to maintain territorial integrity and sovereignty of Sri Lanka when it faced twin threats from LTTE and JVP in 1987.

- By LT GEN ASHOK K MEHTA

Then again, during Sri Lanka's worst economic crisis in 2022, India provided a USD 4 bn economic package in war and peace India will stand with Sri Lanka. PM Narendra Modi's fourth visit to Colombo (5-6 April) since 2014 is unique and unprecedented because no Indian Prime Minister visited Sri Lanka for 19 years after late Rajiv Gandhi's visit in 1987.

Modi will be the first foreign head of state to visit Colombo who has already received Sri Lankan new and untested President Ranil Wickremesinghe.

South connectivity projects like the petroleum pipeline that could be concretised.

An upgraded FTA is also in the works and moving from trade to trade with all South Indian states will energise Sri Lankan economy which is picking up with an expected 5 per cent growth in 2025.

Although 25 per cent of the population has fallen below the poverty line, foreign exchange reserves are a good USD 6.1bn with the Sri Lankan Rupee (SLR) stabilizing against the US dollar at SLR 300 to a dollar. The debt restructuring is also on stream with assistance from Japan, China and India to ensure debt repayment can begin in mid-2027.

One of the long pending issues is the Defence Cooperation Agreement (DCA) whose roots lie in the 2000 Elephant Pass debacle when LTTE was on the verge of overrunning Jaffna and late Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar then in Delhi issued an SOS.