PRIME Minister Narendra Modi’s interaction with the 1996 Cricket World Cup winning Sri Lankan team members in Colombo was a fine moment of soft power opening broader channels to strengthen bilateral relations between India and Sri Lanka. The team members were visibly thrilled to spend time with the Indian Prime Minister while expressing gratitude for helping Lanka during the debilitating economic crisis a couple of years ago. The meeting’s significance cannot be seen only as a feel-good event planned by the crafty advisors of Modi’s team. Its importance rests in a seemingly routine request from former Lankan opener Sanath Jayasuriya seeking India’s help in building a cricket stadium in Jaffna.

 

Jayasuriya’s pitch to bring international cricket to the northern province of Sri Lanka, once ravaged by a long civil war, with the help of India underlines a meaningful shift in Colombo’s viewpoint towards New Delhi. These are unambiguous signs of seeking a reset in bilateral relations by overcoming the heavy baggage of history. Jaffna’s reference should be viewed as a notable gain of the three-day Lanka tour of Prime Minister Modi. The northern Lankan province housing a large Tamil population was the epicentre of ethnic conflict in the 80s with separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) setting up its base in Jaffna. The region saw severe devastation in the 30-year-long civil war between LTTE and the Sri Lankan government. Since then, India’s role in the conflict has been under lens in Jaffna. India had deployed a peacekeeping force to fight the LTTE which still rankles the Tamil population in Jaffna.

 

New Delhi has shared a not-so-smooth relationship with Jaffna and the resident Tamils who are still seen close to India. In this historical context, the request for Indian help to bring international cricket to the northern province comes with its own significance. In fact, Prime Minister Modi’s visit to Lanka, his first after 2019, came with more such imports for India. The bonhomie between Modi and President Anura Kumara Dissanayake and signing of key pacts, including a crucial defence agreement, demonstrated the close relations between the two neighbours. The meetings went beyond optics as it dispelled the perception of the National People’s Power (NPP) regime led by Dissanayake’s Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) being indifferent to India’s security concerns. The perception had stemmed from the JVP’s anti-India postures in the past as India’s diplomatic circles anticipated a cold relation between Colombo and New Delhi. The view was tossed out into the ocean the moment Lanka conferred its highest honour for foreign leaders on Prime Minister Modi.

 

The MoU on defence cooperation, first of its kind, and the Lankan President reaffirming the country’s commitment to not allowing its territory to be used against India’s security or regional stability underlined that the NPP is serious about improving relations with New Delhi. When the JVP assumed power with the victory of Dissanayake in the presidential elections in 2024 there were fears that the NPP government would tilt heavily towards China due to historical antagonism towards India and JVP’s former Marxist-Leninist ideology. New Delhi had already factored in the changes and continued to engage with Colombo regularly.

 

This was evident in the multiple visits by Minister of External Affairs S Jaishankar to Lanka and now Modi’s three-day tour to the Island Nation. The unaltered position came from a set template when India kept a studied distance while keeping channels open with the previous Rajapaksa regime in Colombo. Bilateral relations between the two countries had been affected due to Sri Lanka’s growing engagement with China. The Rajapaksas had failed to see the writing on the wall which came out in bold letters. Their penchant for sitting with diabolical associates instead of opting to go with traditional friends was destined to boomerang. As they let out their strategic locations to Chinese companies, the Rajapaksas also created a double whammy with their love for irrational populism. The crisis wiped out parts of Sri Lanka’s economy. The country defaulted on foreign debt for the first time in history before India stepped in to save the day.

 

Since 2022, relations between India and Lanka have vastly improved as New Delhi played a vital role in the immediate aftermath of Sri Lanka’s foreign debt crisis, providing US$5 billion in aid and supporting Lanka’s application for an International Monetary Fund bailout. In the latest visit by Modi, Lanka completed a bilateral debt restructuring of US$1.4 billion with India, converting hundred million dollars of loans into grants. Seven memoranda of understanding (MoU) were signed on key sectors such as energy, digitalisation, security and healthcare, among which the implementation of HVDC interconnection for the import/export of power and cooperation in the development of Trincomalee as an energy hub were especially significant. Being the first responder to the neighbour’s debilitating economic crisis, Colombo seems to have made a tactical shift in its foreign policy as it seeks India’s embrace.

 

For India, this is the best time to realign its focus on the immediate neighbourhood even as it builds relations with the US, Europe and other middle powers. The Modi visit can be a fresh start to befriend the Lion. However, there is still the Dragon problem. China has a heavy imprint in Lanka. It will be a test for Colombo to pursue an equidistant foreign policy while safeguarding its structural economic weaknesses and monitoring geopolitical rivalry in the region.n