- In March 2021, the Adani Group signed a $700-million deal with the state-run Sri Lanka Ports Authority to develop and run the strategic Colombo Port’s West International Container Terminal
NE EDUCATION BUREAU
AHMEDABAD, DEC 31
Sri Lanka’s High Commissioner to India Asoka Milinda Moragoda on Wednesday said that India is special for us due to our ‘umbilical relations’ with it and high-level visits from the Indian side to Sri Lanka, including by foreign secretary Harsh Shringla and army chief Gen MM Naravane, have helped bridge a trust deficit and prepare the ground for re-energising relations between us.
Moragoda described the feeling in some quarters in New Delhi that China has strengthened its position in Sri Lanka at the cost of India as only a “perception”, and said that New Delhi and Colombo were close to enhancing cooperation in areas ranging from trade to defence, education, tourism and energy.
Speaking in a virtual interactive session organised by the Gandhinagar-based Rashtriya Raksha University, Sri Lanka’s High Commissioner to India Milinda Moragoda said that a dialogue with the Indian government holds significance for the development of trust and understanding between both countries in concern to China’s presence in the island nation. Further speaking on it, he said that no security presence from the Chinese government is there in Sri Lanka and also India has never told it to reject Chinese investments.
“Given the context of a power play in Sri Lanka, the presence of the Chinese footprint can be seen as a different perspective. However, our dialogue with India is important for building trust and understanding each other and maybe have some sort of red lines which both sides will not cross,” he said.
China does not have any security presence in Sri Lanka, and India has never told the island nation not to accept Chinese investment, he further said.
“Those understandings are what we are trying to develop. I think as long as that is there, we should be able to move forward, because nobody has told us, definitely India has not, not to accept Chinese investment. China is one of the biggest investors in the world today. But as long as the investment does not create any strategic issue in India, we should be able to entertain that investment,” he said.
The envoy said better, transparent and candid dialogue between India and Sri Lanka will create less chances of misunderstanding.
In what was seen as a big jolt to New Delhi’s investment plans in Sri Lanka, the Rajapaksa government had unilaterally reneged on a tripartite deal with India and Japan to build a strategic deep-sea container port.
Sri Lanka, which had agreed in 2019 to develop the East Container Terminal (ECT) at the Colombo port with India and Japan, scrapped the deal and termed the ECT “a wholly-owned container terminal of the Sri Lanka Ports Authority.” Colombo said it would instead develop the port’s West Container Terminal (WCT) with investment from India and Japan. Much to India’s displeasure, China in November clinched the contract to develop ECT.
Moragoda said the development of Colombo port by a Chinese company is “a commercial proposition of investment,” even as 70 percent of the 80 percent of cargo coming to Sri Lanka being transshipped goes to India. Out of this 70 percent, 35 percent goes to Adani Ports, adding that “in the economic sense, our basic business model is supply in India through trans-shipment”.
In March 2021, the Adani Group signed a $700-million deal with the state-run Sri Lanka Ports Authority to develop and run the strategic Colombo Port’s West International Container Terminal. The Adani Group will have a 51 percent stake, and the agreement to build, operate and transfer (BOT) will be valid for 35 years.
Sri Lanka’s main focus remains on how to get its economy right, and the visit of a delegation led by its Finance Minister Basil Rajapaksa to the Vibrant Gujarat Global Summit in January will be to facilitate Indian investments in the island nation, he said.
“In that context, on January 9, our Finance Minister Rajapasksa will be traveling to Gujarat for the Vibrant Gujarat (Global Summit) meeting, where we are having a private sector delegation going out there as well. We will also have tourism presence from Sri Lanka. And that will be the beginning of the activation of the fourth pillar to try to encourage investment to come in,” he said in a reply to a query.
The 10th Vibrant Gujarat Global Summit will be organised between January 10-12.
He said that India has a crucial role to play in helping Sri Lanka get its economy right.
Sri Lanka Finance Minister Basil Rajapaksa, in New Delhi on a two-day visit, called on Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and Minister of External Affairs Jaishankar where they discussed the four pillars of involvement potential for India to help Sri Lanka out of its economic crisis, the fourth one related to increasing Indian investment in different sectors in Sri Lanka, Moragoda said.
In a short address to the gathering on the issue of ‘Sri Lanka-India Relations: Way Forward’, Moragoda said, as far as economic relationship is concerned, his country is looking at ways to improve connections in infrastructure-related industry, more specifically ports.
The country is also looking at the energy sector, with a focus on sustainable energy, as some of its regions has a potential to produce up to 5,000 MW of renewable energy, he said.
Tourism is a sector to help the country’s economy, and Indian tourism becomes important in this context, he said.
“Pre-COVID (pandemic), India accounted for 20-25 per cent of tourists coming to Sri Lanka. India is a main market …From Sri lanka, we have pilgrims who go out to Buddhist sites, we are looking at how we can broaden that, not only focusing on Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, but also other states like Odisha…We have also been looking at Gujarat,” he said.
Moragoda also emphasized the need for people-to-people and cultural relations, because the two countries come from “the same gene pool.” The need for exchange of students between the two countries will help build confidence, he said, adding that his country was working with Kerala for such exchange programmes.
During the last visit to Colombo by Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla in October, India did push for the ECT to go through as New Delhi views it as a strategic deal, considering Beijing’s growing influence there.
According to High Commissioner Moragoda, India and Sri Lanka are now aiming to expand their business and economic ties.
During the visit by Sri Lankan Finance Minister Basil Rajapaksa on 1-2 December, India and Sri Lanka discussed four pillars for short and medium-term cooperation: a food and health security package, an energy security package, an offer of a currency swap, and facilitating Indian investment in different sectors.
“After the visit of the finance minister, I think the one area where we want to do a lot more would be the renewable energy sector. We have tremendous wind and solar energy potential. There is a possibility to have a cable link between India and Sri Lanka so that we can export or import electricity depending on the situation,” Moragoda said.
In the tourism sector — one of the mainstays of the Sri Lankan economy — India had a market share of nearly 25 per cent before the COVID-19 pandemic. Colombo plans to boost that by resuming some of the traditional routes.
Meanwhile, India’s ITC Hotels is investing upwards of $400 million in Sri Lanka, said Moragoda, adding, “This is their first major hotel project outside India and it will start operations from next year.”
Indian IT conglomerates like HCL are also expanding their businesses there. “So, a lot has been happening. India is one of the major investors in Sri Lanka,” he emphasised.
Moragoda also said that Sri Lanka is planning to open a consulate in Kolkata soon because of West Bengal’s traditional links with the country. Both governments have approved the plan.
To a query on the frequent apprehensions of Tamil Nadu fishermen and their boats by the Sri Lankan Navy, the envoy said that the fishermen ought to show maturity by not crossing the international borders for poaching and talks in this regard was going on between the two countries.
Answering another question on taking back of Sri Lankan refugees in India, he said that his government would take all measures to facilitate their safe return and rehabilitation.
