India, Sri Lanka unveil vision for deeper economic ties

• Prime Minister Narendra Modi held talks with Sri Lankan President Ranil Wickremesinghe in New Delhi on July 21.

• Both countries adopted a vision document to significantly expand connectivity and economic ties. 

• The leaders acknowledged that the India-Sri Lanka partnership has been a source of strength in overcoming economic difficulties faced by Sri Lanka.

• This year marks the 200 years of the arrival of the Indian origin Tamil community in Sri Lanka. To commemorate this significant moment of history PM Modi announced that the government of India will be implementing a development package exclusively centered for the Indian origin Tamil community.

• The leaders underlined the cardinal importance of promoting and strengthening connectivity in all its dimensions as the key enabler.

Accordingly, both sides have decided:

• To cooperate in development of ports and logistics infrastructure at Colombo, Trincomalee and Kankesanthurai with an aim to consolidate regional logistics and shipping, as per mutual understanding.

• To resume passenger ferry services between Nagapattinam in India and Kankesanthurai in Sri Lanka and work towards early resumption of ferry services between Rameshwaram and Talaimannar, and other mutually agreed places.

• To establish a high capacity power grid interconnection between India and Sri Lanka to enable bidirectional electricity trade between Sri Lanka and other regional countries.

• To expedite implementation of understanding reached on Sampur Solar power project and LNG infrastructure, and explore cooperation in green hydrogen and green ammonia through use of innovative technologies with an aim to increase renewable energy mix in power generation of Sri Lanka.

• To operationalise UPI based digital payments for further enhancing trade and transactions between businesses and common people. 

• To promote awareness and popularise India’s Buddhist circuit, and Ramayana trail as well as ancient places of Buddhist, Hindu and other religious worship in Sri Lanka for enhancing tourism. India is currently the largest source of inbound tourism into Sri Lanka.

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