‘India is an age-old friend of Sri Lanka’. Discuss India’s role in the recent crisis in Sri Lanka in the light of the preceding statement.
The relationship between India and Sri Lanka is more than 2,500 years old. Both countries have a legacy of intellectual, cultural, religious and linguistic interaction.
With Srilanka under the grip of an unprecedented economic turmoil and political instability, the worst in seven decades, leaving millions struggling to buy food, medicine, fuel and other essentials, India has hold its credential of being an age-old friend.
India's helping role in the crisis:
- A four-pronged” initiative has been decided that included
- Lines of Credit (LoC) towards the import of fuel, food and medicines
- Currency swap
- Debt deferrals from India to Sri Lanka
- Conclusion of the Trinco-oil farms project
- The Trincomalee project MoU was signed in January 2022 after decades of delays.
- India has extended 400 million dollar under the “SAARC currency swap” arrangement.
- India has agreed to a partial deferral of a 500 million dollar settlement from Sri Lanka by two months.
- The 1.5 billion dollar LoC for essential imports is reportedly under way.
Sri Lanka is very important for India because of geografical location and security point of view. New Delhi and Colombo to thrash out a solution to bilateral irritants like the Palk Bay fisheries dispute, nurturing the neighbourhood first policy.
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