PTI, New Delhi :
Signalling that Sri Lanka would be a priority for India in South Asia, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday announced that he would be visiting the island nation in March.
Mindful that India can only address Sri Lanka’s infrastructure deficit in a limited manner, the Indian government pushed for greater political and trade linkages between the two countries during the visit of Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena to India. On the political side, external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj is to visit Sri Lanka in the first week of March, two people close to the developments said.
Her visit is expected to pave the way for Modi’s visit, likely in the second week of March, one of the two people said. In a bid to increase the economic stakes between the two countries, Modi expressed “support for a balanced trade in both directions”, noting that India enjoyed a huge surplus.
The commerce secretaries of both countries are to meet soon to review commercial ties, Modi said. The Prime Minister was speaking in New Delhi after talks with Sirisena. Sirisena’s four-day visit to India, which started on Sunday, is his first visit abroad since being sworn in as the President of Sri Lanka on 9 January. He trounced former president Mahinda Rajapakse in national polls on 8 January.
After sharing tense relations with Rajapakse due to the latter’s reported tilt toward India’s strategic and economic rival China, India was quick to welcome Sirisena’s ascent as president and readily agreed to receive Sri Lanka’s new foreign minister Mangala Samaraweera within five days of him being appointed on 17 January. The gestures indicate a re-scripting of ties that had cooled during the tenure of Rajapaksa. According to a third person familiar with the talks, the Indian side did not raise the issue of increased contacts with China.
“The aim was to shore up India’s stakes in Sri Lanka,” the person said. In his comments to the media after talks with Sirisena, Modi hailed the January poll verdict, saying the “mandate carries the collective voice of Sri Lanka. It represents the aspirations of your people for a united, inclusive peaceful and prosperous nation”-a reference to Sirisena’s promise to ensure the minority Tamils get their due in Sinhala-majority Sri Lanka. Both countries are looking at an “unprecedented opportunity” to take “bilateral relations to a new level,” Modi said.
On his part, Sirisena said friendship between the two countries was significant for the region as well. “I really appreciate Prime Minister Modi’s efforts (to improve ties). Relations between the two countries will be strengthened further,” Sirisena said. To shore up economic relations, Modi announced that India was ready to promote greater flow of Indian investments into Sri Lanka to balance trade skewed in India’s favour. One of the people familiar with the discussions cited above said India and Sri Lanka would be looking to restart stalled talks on the Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement (CEPA) soon. Both sides signed a free trade pact in 1999 that came into force in March 2000- which has seen trade rise to $4.6 billion in 2013-14, according to government figures.
An agreement on cooperation in the peaceful uses of nuclear energy is also being viewed as a demonstration of attempts to energise economic engagement between the nations. The pact facilitates “cooperation in the transfer and exchange of knowledge and expertise, sharing of resources, capacity building and training of personnel in peaceful uses of nuclear energy.
Signalling that Sri Lanka would be a priority for India in South Asia, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday announced that he would be visiting the island nation in March.
Mindful that India can only address Sri Lanka’s infrastructure deficit in a limited manner, the Indian government pushed for greater political and trade linkages between the two countries during the visit of Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena to India. On the political side, external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj is to visit Sri Lanka in the first week of March, two people close to the developments said.
Her visit is expected to pave the way for Modi’s visit, likely in the second week of March, one of the two people said. In a bid to increase the economic stakes between the two countries, Modi expressed “support for a balanced trade in both directions”, noting that India enjoyed a huge surplus.
The commerce secretaries of both countries are to meet soon to review commercial ties, Modi said. The Prime Minister was speaking in New Delhi after talks with Sirisena. Sirisena’s four-day visit to India, which started on Sunday, is his first visit abroad since being sworn in as the President of Sri Lanka on 9 January. He trounced former president Mahinda Rajapakse in national polls on 8 January.
After sharing tense relations with Rajapakse due to the latter’s reported tilt toward India’s strategic and economic rival China, India was quick to welcome Sirisena’s ascent as president and readily agreed to receive Sri Lanka’s new foreign minister Mangala Samaraweera within five days of him being appointed on 17 January. The gestures indicate a re-scripting of ties that had cooled during the tenure of Rajapaksa. According to a third person familiar with the talks, the Indian side did not raise the issue of increased contacts with China.
“The aim was to shore up India’s stakes in Sri Lanka,” the person said. In his comments to the media after talks with Sirisena, Modi hailed the January poll verdict, saying the “mandate carries the collective voice of Sri Lanka. It represents the aspirations of your people for a united, inclusive peaceful and prosperous nation”-a reference to Sirisena’s promise to ensure the minority Tamils get their due in Sinhala-majority Sri Lanka. Both countries are looking at an “unprecedented opportunity” to take “bilateral relations to a new level,” Modi said.
On his part, Sirisena said friendship between the two countries was significant for the region as well. “I really appreciate Prime Minister Modi’s efforts (to improve ties). Relations between the two countries will be strengthened further,” Sirisena said. To shore up economic relations, Modi announced that India was ready to promote greater flow of Indian investments into Sri Lanka to balance trade skewed in India’s favour. One of the people familiar with the discussions cited above said India and Sri Lanka would be looking to restart stalled talks on the Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement (CEPA) soon. Both sides signed a free trade pact in 1999 that came into force in March 2000- which has seen trade rise to $4.6 billion in 2013-14, according to government figures.
An agreement on cooperation in the peaceful uses of nuclear energy is also being viewed as a demonstration of attempts to energise economic engagement between the nations. The pact facilitates “cooperation in the transfer and exchange of knowledge and expertise, sharing of resources, capacity building and training of personnel in peaceful uses of nuclear energy.
