Search

Independent of the fate of the UNHRC vote this time, the recent referendum in distant Crimea should be a shocking eye-opener to Sri Lankan stake-holders of the 'ethnic issue', 'accountability calls' and all attendant concerns.

By inviting SAARC Heads of Government for his inauguration, prime minister-designate Narendra Modi has demonstrated a firm grip over the emerging foreign policy scenario(s) and his vision of and for an India of the future.

India's abstention from voting at the UNHRC session in Geneva means that India has now re-positioned itself to re-engage the Sri Lankan stake-holders in a constructive way, as articulated by Foreign Minister Salman Khurshid long before the vote.

Public posturing apart, moderate Tamils in Sri Lanka seem to want India to intercede on their behalf all over again and help arrive at a political settlement on the ethnic issue with their nation's government.

With the international community refusing to take its focus off the human rights situation in Sri Lanka even in the midst of developments in West Asia and North Africa, there are now expectations that it could well be Colombo's turn to be called to account for, though to be at a lesser degree.

With the international community reacting on expected lines on the Report of the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC), the matter could now be expected to be taken up by the West in forums where they have a say.

India thus cannot afford to vote against Sri Lanka at UNHRC, now or later. If India needs to engage with Sri Lanka for helping the Tamils, it cannot do so from a perceived position of animosity and antagonism.

If anyone in southern Tamil Nadu, or across the Palk Strait in Sri Lanka, thought that there would be a grandiose shift in India's policy towards the southern Sri Lankan neighbour under a new, BJP dispensation, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has given a lie to their hopes and claims.

The Sri Lankan Government's current efforts at reviving the PSC process may have come a little too late in the day, but then it could claim that it was more focussed on conducting the Northern Provincial Council polls, as promised by President Rajapaksa, in September.

A delegation of senior journalists from Sri Lanka and Maldives visited Observer Research Foundation and held interaction with its faculty on July 5, 2011. The interaction, chaired by Mr. H.H.S. Viswanathan, Distinguished Fellow, ORF and a former ambassador.

The Sri Lankan Premier Mahinda Rajapakse has completed his three-day visit to India over the weekend from July 17 to 19. He was here on the invitation of the Indian Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh.

Last year’s economic crisis crippled the island nation, but it also provided India an opening to offset some of the inroads that China has made in Sri Lanka.

Sri Lanka’s pact with China for Hambanbota port may well be a case of strategic deception, and not just a political balancing act between India and China.

Once again, the country is forced to seek a bailout from the IMF – with all the costs and benefits that entails.

In April 2022, Sri Lanka’s sovereign debt default —with China being the largest bilateral creditor—trained the spotlight on the impact of Beijing’s lending on Sri Lanka’s economic crisis. Yet, Sri Lanka’s debacle is a result of far more complex, interrelated factors than indebtedness to China. At the same time, there has been a significant rise in servicing of loans from China over the years, and Beijing is indeed an important

At the Galle Dialogue 2016, Sri Lanka sought not only to stress its critical geographical location at the crossroads of important Indian Ocean sea lines of communication, but also to display a catalytic ability to spur regional collaboration in securing the vulnerable commons.

The country continues to be a prime area of competition for both Asian powers in the South Asia region.

With the UNHRC vote only days away, it was not a total give-away by India. The Prime Minister's statement in the Parliament implied that the tinkered second draft of the US Resolution too did not meet Indian expectations.

Sri Lanka's IMF rescue plan has geopolitical repercussions. The Island nation has entered a difficult terrain with China's expansionist interests and India and Japan's security concerns

Anura Kumara Dissanayake, JVP, Sri Lanka, India, China, foreign policy, economic crisis, governance, SAGAR, Indo-Lanka accord, Indian investments, transparency, SOEs, Chinese loans

While the trip offered a chance to build on cooperation, it also reinforced existing differences between the two countries.

Since the early 2000s, China's debt profile in Sri Lanka has increased rapidly, with estimates indicating that over 20% of the overall debt stock is owed to China. Beijing's lending has been opaque on high-interest loans and has often contributed to several white elephant projects. Much of this lending comes from Chinese policy banks, such as China Exim Bank and China Development Bank that is entrusted to further Beijing's economic and commercial

Sri Lanka’s Parliament postponed discussion of a bill regarding Colombo Port City, but it is expected to pass.

New Delhi’s Indian Ocean woes aren’t confined to Sri Lanka. Across the Indian Ocean’s littorals, the Chinese navy has been preparing to establish a stronger security presence. On Pakistan’s Makran coast, the PLAN has deployed regularly, including at Gwadar, also constructed by CMPorts. Earlier this year, the PLA is said to have initiated talks with the Pakistan military for another outpost at Jiwani.

In the CJ impeachment case in Sri Lanka, the options for the Government are fewer, while for the Chief Justice, it is still worse - when it comes to enforcing Parliament's will on the one hand and the judiciary's decisions on the other.

New Delhi can lend a helping hand as a responsible neighbour, but Sri Lanka’s future rests on its political establishment responding adequately to the people’s aspirations

There is a need for Sri Lanka and Sri Lankans to acknowledge that the Indian vote in Geneva owed mainly to the un-kept promises from the war years, and less to do with the 'Tamil Nadu factor'.

Intentionally or otherwise, the ruling DMK in Tamil Nadu seems to be conferring on the 'Sri Lankan Tamil issue' the place that the State's voters did not attach during the critical weeks of the parliamentary polls in May 2009.

By declaring that India should be actively involved in the Sri Lankan peace process, Mahinda Rajapakse, the newly sworn-in Prime Minister of the island-nation has put both the peace process and India back at the centre-stage back again. Lakshman Kadirgamar, the ruling dispensation¿s foreign policy czar, has said as much. In her maiden national telecast after the parliamentary polls

The most recent Tokyo Conference on the Reconstruction and Development of Sri Lanka was held at Washington D.C., on February 17, 2004, as a follow-up meet to discuss the international community¿s support for Sri Lanka¿s peace process.

Starting this week, ORF brings you the main events that have taken place in the week gone by in India's neighbourhood, from Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh, Maldives and Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka¿s new Foreign Minister, Lakshman Kadirgamar, has indicated the importance, and relevance of India to the Sri Lankan context, by visiting New Delhi within days of his being sworn in. His visit to India even before the conclusion of the Indian electoral exercise was testimony to the mood in Colombo for increasing New Delhi¿s role and involvement in the Sri Lanka peace process.

China’s growing footprint in Sri Lanka has been of concern to India.

A visiting team of Sri Lankan Tamil political leaders addressed an interaction at the ORF Chennai Chapter of the Observer Research Foundation on 3 January 2008. The team comprised Mr V Anandasangaree, president of the Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF), Mr D Sithardthan of the People's Liberation Organisation of Tamil Eelam (PLOTE) and Mr T Sritharan from the Eelam People's Revolutionary Liberation Front (EPRLF).

The most important reason for Sri Lankan government's failure to move on reconciliation is the incapacity to work positively with moderate Tamil forces, according to Prof Rajiva Wijesinha, M.P. And in reaching out to Tamil parties, India's role is crucial.

Over and above the stated causes, reasons and justification, the Indian 'abstention' on the anti-Sri Lanka vote at the UNHRC this time was a 'message' in itself. Intended or otherwise, the 'message' was for the West-dominated 'international community' on the one hand, and the Sri Lankan stakeholders on the other.

''The Centre will consider the prevailing situation in Sri Lanka and the overall relationship between India and its island-neighbour while formulating its stand on the US-backed resolution against Sri Lanka in the UNHRC,''.

After the attacks, which killed more than 250 people, making it one of the most successful pro-ISIS attacks anywhere, information was leaked out to the Indian press that New Delhi shared intelligence with Colombo of an impending attack of similar nature.

India and Sri Lanka are now working on a comprehensive economic agreement following the success of the Free Trade Agreement of 1999. This was stated by Sri Lanka's Minister for Export Promotion and International Trade,

Once again, the pending visit of a Chinese research vessel to Sri Lanka has touched off Indian objections.

Do the Modi government think that the worse was over for its bilateral ties with Sri Lanka, first with the exit of the LTTE, and later the electoral defeat of President Rajapaksa? If so, PM Wickremesinghe's interview should be seen as a lesson in the 'right direction' - though not necessarily on the 'right lines' as India would have wished.

Prof. S.D. Muni, a Sri Lankan expert, says that it was unlikely that the 13th Amendment would be implemented, but the spirit of the amendment, i.e., accommodation, would play a much larger role relative to Rajapaksa's rule.