Sri Lankan President Ranil Wickremesinghe's two-day visit to India

Tags: International Relations

Sri Lankan President Ranil Wickremesinghe made a two-day visit to India on 20 and 21 July 2023, during which several important agreements were signed between the two countries, which is considered very important in terms of relations between the two countries.

An Overview of the news:

• Delegation level talks were held between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Sri Lankan President on 21 July 2023 in New Delhi.
• This year both the countries are celebrating the 75th anniversary of diplomatic relations. Apart from this, the Tamil community of Indian origin is completing 200 years of its arrival in Sri Lanka.

Agreement on vision document to strengthen economic partnership:

• During the talks, a vision document has been adopted to take the bilateral economic partnership between the two countries to a new level.
• Through this, both the countries will increase mutual cooperation in tourism, energy, trade, higher education and skill development. Through this vision, it has been decided to strengthen maritime, air, energy and people-to-people connectivity among people.

India's Long Term Commitment:

• To get Sri Lanka out of the economic crisis, India will increase its economic activities through more investments there.

Economic and Technological Cooperation Agreement (ETCA): 

• Both the countries have decided to start negotiations on the Economic and Technological Cooperation Agreement (ETCA) at the earliest. This will open new avenues of bilateral trade and economic cooperation.

Agreements signed for UPI launch in Sri Lanka:

• India's UPI will be able to make payments in Sri Lanka. For this, India's UPI technology has now been accepted by Sri Lanka as well. This will also help in increasing fintech connectivity.
• Prior to this, France, UAE and Singapore have adopted this app-based service for payment of money.

Connectivity to enhance bilateral cooperation:

• Both countries have decided to increase air connectivity. Along with this, it has also been decided to start passenger ferry services between Nagapattinam in Tamil Nadu and Kanke-Santurai in Sri Lanka.
• The resumption of flights between Chennai-Jaffna is helping in increasing people-to-people contact between the two countries.
• Along with this, both the countries have also agreed to investigate the feasibility of the land bridge.

Cooperation in Energy Sector:

• Both countries have decided to expedite the work of connecting the electricity grid to enhance energy cooperation.
• Under this, both the countries have decided to conduct a feasibility study to give a realistic shape to the possibility of building a petroleum pipeline between the two countries.
• In this context, India has already provided petroleum products to Nepal and Bangladesh through pipelines.