New Delhi, October 26
The proposed defence cooperation between India and Sri Lanka is aimed at killing several birds with one stone. It is also indicative of the changing winds that are sweeping South Asia.
The strategic, geo-political and economic significance of this development in particular and a thaw in the Indo-Lankan ties in general are immense.
A point to be noted is that Colombo itself has been keen on a defence pact, even though similar cooperation has been going on between the two countries for quite some time.
An agreement was reached in principle during Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe’s visit here (October 19-21). A four-page joint statement issued at the end of the visit talked about the proposed defence pact: “The two Prime Ministers discussed the ongoing cooperation in training and the supply of equipment to the Sri Lankan defence forces and agreed that the two nations will commence discussions with a view to concluding a defence cooperation agreement at the earliest.”
Diplomatic sources say the pact is likely to be in place by early next year.
It would mean a major policy change, perhaps reversal to some extent, as the pact would formalise Indian assistance to Colombo in terms of training, equipment and joint exercises for the first time since New Delhi burnt its fingers with the IPKF experiment from 1987 to 1990. The post-IPKF scenario saw foreign powers, particularly Pakistan, increasing their presence in Sri Lanka in a big way.
This got impetus after the assassination of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi on May 21, 1991. Pakistan increased its cooperation with Colombo. China also stepped in and beefed up its cooperation with Sri Lanka in sensitive areas.
Indian foreign policy lay in tatters in this backdrop as hostile powers threatened to come to India’s backyard in a big way. There was nothing much New Delhi could do about it as it was not politically correct given the fragmented polity India had in the wake of Rajiv Gandhi’s assassination.
The situation has changed dramatically lately and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa is firmly with the Centre on marginalising the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and improving relations with the Sri Lankan government.
Though India has been cooperating with Colombo in defence matters for quite some time now, the fact that the two nations have openly talked of a defence pact sends a diplomatic signal to various quarters.
The most important message is for India’s immediate neighbourhood (read Pakistan and China): that India’s backyard is not up for grabs.
Even a superpower like the USA eyes Sri Lanka from a strategic angle. In the 1980s Washington wanted to have a military base in Trincomalee, a move which was not only disliked but successfully thwarted by then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.
The proposed pact between India and Sri Lanka would benefit both the sides. While it would help India maintain strategic balance in the subcontinent, it would be equally helpful to Colombo for the signals it sends to the LTTE that India is for the territorial integrity and sovereignty of the island nation.
There is, however, a lurking danger: the LTTE. It is an open secret that the LTTE has utilised the past 18-month period of the so-called “peace talks” for consolidating militarily. Experts predict that the LTTE is just playing a waiting game with Colombo and will show its true colours after the “peace talks” are formally over.
