A Study on India –Sri Lanka Cooperation since 2015 under the UNF and BJP Governments

Abstract

The bilateral relations between United People Freedom Alliance government in Sri Lanka and Congress Party government in India had deteriorated since 2015. Although, the Indian government assisted a number of post war reconstruction and development projects in the Northern Province of Sri Lanka, many criticism and allegations were made by the Indian government on reconciliation measures in the Northern Province. Further, growing Sri Lanka- China relation was highly suspected by the Indian government. The aim of this paper is to examine India-Sri Lanka relations carried out by the United National Front government in Sri Lanka and Bharathiya Janatha Party government in India between 2015- 2018. The methodology of data collection was purely based on secondary data and this is a qualitatively analysis. Prime Minister of India Narendra Mod visited Sri Lanka two times and the Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena and the Prime Minister Ranil Wickramasingha also visited India to reconfirm diplomatic relations. Modi once stated that Sri Lanka was the most reliable neighbor to India. Indian government assisted several projects in Sri Lanka and Memorandum of understanding was signed in 2017 on economic cooperation in the areas of infrastructure, agriculture, livestock and electricity power all of which would be jointly developed by the two countries. Both governments carried out talks on development of the Palaly airport, Mattala airport and the East container terminal of the Colombo harbor. In 2018, when Sri Lankan Prime Minister visited India, Prime Minister Modi expressed bitter disappointment and regret about the issue of the constantly delaying of Indian development projects by the Sri Lankan government. That was followed by President Sirisena’s serious allegations which was reportedly made against New Delhi on RAW activities. However, data revealed that India–Sri Lanka cooperation had started to develop into a better relationship since 2015 in order to protect Indian interest in the South Asian region