India's deals with Sri Lanka heighten stakes in 'Great Game' with Beijing

[samv]

galti ho gayi yaar,forgive us and give us the chance

Well as far as state-to-state relations are it is all water under the bridge which is testament to leaders of both countries who want to move foward and not stay stagnant.

 

[IBRIS]

India, Lanka sign 7 pacts

India and Sri Lanka today signed seven agreements and discussed issues like devolution of powers to the provinces and begin negotiations with the Tamil community in the island nation.

During the delegation-level talks led by PM Manmohan Singh and visiting Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa, the two sides also touched upon ensuring livelihood to the Sri Lankan Tamils and necessary steps to ensure speedy resettlement of those who were still in makeshift camps even a year after the Sri Lankan government’s war with the LTTE had ended.

Rajapaksa reassured Singh about his government’s plans to resettle refugees who continue to remain in camps. Sri Lanka claims that bulk of the displaced Tamils in its northern areas have been resettled, and of the remaining 50,000, half move in and out of the camps.

 

[IBRIS]

Man the lankans must be having a ball with all this courting from india and china

 

[kamakazi attack]

Sri Lanka is a beautiful country, its people of some of the hardest working people I've ever met. Sri Lanka would be prudent to play off China with India and vice versa. If India can become a economic powerhouse than Sr Lanka will certainly benefit big time.

 

[samv]

India agrees to $1 bn loan for post-war Sri Lanka

India has agreed to lend $1 billion to fund Sri Lanka’s infrastructure projects, mainly in former war zones in the country’s north and east

Colombo: India has agreed to lend $1 billion to fund Sri Lanka’s infrastructure projects, mainly in former war zones in the country’s north and east, the island nation’s treasury secretary said on Thursday.

“India assured us $800 million for the reconstruction of railway and a further $200 million for a power plant,” P B Jayasundera, the secretary to the treasury and the ministry of finance, told Reuters in a mobile phone text message from India.

“It is a 20-year credit at an absolutely low interest rate. About $250 million in a grant will also be available in support of housing development in the north and east.”

A Sri Lankan delegation headed by President Mahinda Rajapaksa is now in India on a four-day official visit and both countries have focused on economic and cultural ties, officials of both countries have said.

The railway reconstruction will mainly cover Sri Lanka’s north, now slowly being rebuilt after the end of a 25-year war in May last year, while the power plant has been planned in its eastern province.

India has also agreed to build 50,000 houses for people displaced by the war in both northern and eastern provinces, the high commissions, or embassies, of both countries said in a statement on Wednesday.

India and China, which provided Sri Lanka with military assistance, including ammunition, in the final phase of the war, have been increasingly competing for lucrative and strategic investments there since the end of the war.

China in March agreed to lend $290 million to Sri Lanka to build a new airport and revive its railway network.

China was the largest foreign funding source for Sri Lanka in 2009 with $1.2 billion followed by the Asian Development Bank with $424 million.

India agrees $1 bn loan for post-war Sri Lanka - Home - livemint.com

 

[samv]

India and Sri Lanka Enter New Era

By Paul Beckett

A year ago, Sri Lankan government was being sharply criticized by human rights groups and some western government officials over the severity with which the government destroyed the remaining forces of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. Still, the country is seeking to rehabilitate its reputation in some international circles, going so far as to hire a public relations firm, London-based Bell Pottinger, to get the small nation more favorable press and hosting last weekend’s International Indian Film Academy awards in Colombo.

India has not been part of that equation. Instead, it invited Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa for a four-day state visit to New Delhi, which began earlier this week and ends tomorrow. And the government of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh appears determined to use the opportunity created by the Tamil Tigers’ demise to fully normalize relations with its southern neighbor and to embrace the regime.

In a lengthy joint statement issued yesterday evening, the two nations detailed a litany of areas where they will increase cooperation in coming years and where India will extend credit.

Mr. Singh, it said, had conveyed to Mr. Rajapaksa that the end of the rebellion plus elections earlier this year which voted the Sri Lankan president back into office “provided a historic opportunity for the country’s leaders to address all outstanding issues in a spirit of reconciliation.”

The two leaders unveiled a program to build 50,000 houses for internally displaced persons in Sri Lanka’s north and east. Indian is helping build railways and has extended an $800-million line of credit for railway projects in Sri Lanka. They are reviving a joint commission between the two countries, jointly chaired by their foreign ministers, and are looking for ways to expand economic and agricultural ties beyond their free trade agreement.

The statement even talked about the need to “speedily restore the traditional links between the two countries” by resuming ferry services between Colombo and Tuticorin and between Talaimannar and Rameswaram. There will be a new Indian consulate-general in Jaffna and Hambantota and Sri Lanka wants to set up another consulate in India. On and on it went.

No doubt this will be anathema to some in Tamil Nadu whose sympathies lie with the defeated Tigers. But K. Santhanam, former director-general of the Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses in New Delhi, says that this marks a new era in relations between the two countries after their turbulent recent history.

He notes that sympathy in India for the LTTE plummeted after a Tamil activist assassinated Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi on the campaign trail in 1991 and that the new initiatives between the two countries will be taken by most in India as another major step on “the path of normalization.”

“It is an idea for which the time has come,” he said.

India and Sri Lanka Enter New Era - India Real Time - WSJ