India and Sri Lanka are family. They should help each other.
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NEW DELHI—India and Sri Lanka pledged to boost economic and maritime ties on Tuesday as the countries seek to renew their strategic closeness after the island nation this year ousted a leader who had steered Sri Lanka closer to China.
On his first overseas trip since his victory in parliamentary elections last month, Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said the two countries needed to take long-pending steps to improve trade and increase cooperation between their security forces in the geopolitically important Indian Ocean.
“When there is stability in the Indian Ocean, India and Sri Lanka prosper,” Mr. Wickremesinghe said after talks with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. “And when there is instability, we get affected.”
Mr. Wickremesinghe last month fended off an attempt by former president Mahinda Rajapaksa to make a comeback as prime minister in legislative elections. Mr. Rajapaksa’s nearly decadelong tenure as president, which ended when he lost out in a vote in January, saw a significant uptick in Chinese funding for Sri Lanka’s infrastructure projects, including ports along a critical shipping route. Mr. Rajapaksa is now in the opposition in Parliament.
“This is a historic year for India-Sri Lanka relations,” Mr. Modi said on Tuesday. “Sri Lanka has voted twice this year for change, reforms, reconciliation and progress.”
Sri Lanka’s new president, Maithripala Sirisena, and Mr. Wickremesinghe have sought to improve relations between the country’s Sinhalese majority and its Tamil minority after a brutal, decadeslong civil war.
On a visit to Sri Lanka in March, Mr. Modi, whose own country is home to millions of Tamils, appealed to the new government to find ways to empower the minority community.
The island nation’s new leaders are also reassessing Sri Lanka’s commercial ties with Beijing while strengthening relations with the West. The government suspended a Chinese-backed development project that involves creating a massive landfill in the ocean off Colombo to probe its legality.
Sri Lanka is unlikely to shut the door on Chinese funding for its development needs. But it is looking to strike a greater balance in its regional relations, analysts say.
These developments come at a time when Mr. Modi’s foreign policy has focused on improving New Delhi’s relations with its neighbors, in part in response to China’s growing footprint in South Asia, from Nepal to the Maldives, and its presence in the Indian Ocean.
Last year, Chinese submarines made two port calls in Colombo—a move that raised concerns in New Delhi and Washington. “We recognize our closely aligned security interests and the need to remain sensitive to each other’s concerns,” Mr. Modi said of India’s relationship with Sri Lanka on Tuesday.
Mr. Modi has also taken steps to strengthen India’s other maritime partnerships. New Delhi held its first bilateral naval exercises with Australia off India’s eastern coast over the weekend, focusing on anti-submarine warfare.
India has also invited Japan for a second consecutive year to join the so-called Malabar exercise, an annual event that has been primarily a bilateral U.S.-Indian operation.
India, Sri Lanka Pledge Closer Ties
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NEW DELHI—India and Sri Lanka pledged to boost economic and maritime ties on Tuesday as the countries seek to renew their strategic closeness after the island nation this year ousted a leader who had steered Sri Lanka closer to China.
On his first overseas trip since his victory in parliamentary elections last month, Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said the two countries needed to take long-pending steps to improve trade and increase cooperation between their security forces in the geopolitically important Indian Ocean.
“When there is stability in the Indian Ocean, India and Sri Lanka prosper,” Mr. Wickremesinghe said after talks with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. “And when there is instability, we get affected.”
Mr. Wickremesinghe last month fended off an attempt by former president Mahinda Rajapaksa to make a comeback as prime minister in legislative elections. Mr. Rajapaksa’s nearly decadelong tenure as president, which ended when he lost out in a vote in January, saw a significant uptick in Chinese funding for Sri Lanka’s infrastructure projects, including ports along a critical shipping route. Mr. Rajapaksa is now in the opposition in Parliament.
“This is a historic year for India-Sri Lanka relations,” Mr. Modi said on Tuesday. “Sri Lanka has voted twice this year for change, reforms, reconciliation and progress.”
Sri Lanka’s new president, Maithripala Sirisena, and Mr. Wickremesinghe have sought to improve relations between the country’s Sinhalese majority and its Tamil minority after a brutal, decadeslong civil war.
On a visit to Sri Lanka in March, Mr. Modi, whose own country is home to millions of Tamils, appealed to the new government to find ways to empower the minority community.
The island nation’s new leaders are also reassessing Sri Lanka’s commercial ties with Beijing while strengthening relations with the West. The government suspended a Chinese-backed development project that involves creating a massive landfill in the ocean off Colombo to probe its legality.
Sri Lanka is unlikely to shut the door on Chinese funding for its development needs. But it is looking to strike a greater balance in its regional relations, analysts say.
These developments come at a time when Mr. Modi’s foreign policy has focused on improving New Delhi’s relations with its neighbors, in part in response to China’s growing footprint in South Asia, from Nepal to the Maldives, and its presence in the Indian Ocean.
Last year, Chinese submarines made two port calls in Colombo—a move that raised concerns in New Delhi and Washington. “We recognize our closely aligned security interests and the need to remain sensitive to each other’s concerns,” Mr. Modi said of India’s relationship with Sri Lanka on Tuesday.
Mr. Modi has also taken steps to strengthen India’s other maritime partnerships. New Delhi held its first bilateral naval exercises with Australia off India’s eastern coast over the weekend, focusing on anti-submarine warfare.
India has also invited Japan for a second consecutive year to join the so-called Malabar exercise, an annual event that has been primarily a bilateral U.S.-Indian operation.
India, Sri Lanka Pledge Closer Ties