India and Sri Lanka have historically shared close cultural and economic ties but their relationship has also been strained by the issue of Tamil minorities in Sri Lanka and the resulting civil war. While India has supported Sri Lankan sovereignty, it has also attempted to broker peace agreements and intervene militarily in the past with limited success due to opposition from Tamils, Sinhalese nationalists, and the LTTE. More recently both countries have worked to strengthen economic cooperation while India still aims to protect Tamil interests.

2. • India - Sri Lanka Relations:
• Sri Lanka is located off the coast of South East India. India is the only neighbour of Sri
Lanka, separated by the Palk Strait.
• Both nations occupy a strategic position in South Asia and have sought to build a common
security umbrella in the Indian Ocean.
• The country has very close cultural links with India.
• In the political sphere India and Sri Lanka have maintained very cordial relations from the
beginning.
• Two countries have also maintained close cooperation in the economic field.

3. • Both are members of the non-aligned movement and share identical
views on most of the international problems.
• The only irritant in the relations between India and Sri Lanka is the
problem of the people of Indian origin in Sri Lanka.
• This problem has existed right from the time Sri Lanka gained
independence in 1949.

4. • India-Sri Lanka relations have also been influenced by the legacy of
colonial rule.
• The two countries have been able to resolve, through patient negotiations,
the complex case of the stateless Indians who had gone to Sri Lanka during
British rule to work in the tea gardens of that country.
• The Tamil insurgence of Eelam (freedom) had also at one time threatened
to jeopardise relations between the two countries.

5. • Sri Lankans had some reason to suspect Indian intentions, because
Tamil insurgent groups had been receiving shelter and support in the
Indian state of Tamil Nadu, which has been ruled by the Tamil
regional parties, the DMK or AIADMAK.
• At one time, India also attempted to bring about some agreement
between the Sri Lanka Government and the Tamil insurgent group,
LTTE led by Prabhakaran.

6. •The Indian policy has been to support the territorial integrity
and sovereignty or Sri Lanka and entered into an agreement
with the latter with the objective of settling the conflict in a
peaceful manner (Rajiv- Jayawardene Agreement in 1987).
•The peace accord assigned a certain degree of regional
autonomy in the Tamil areas and called for the Tamil militant
groups to lay down their arms.
•Further India was to send a peacekeeping force, named the
IPKF to Sri Lanka to enforce the disarmament and to watch
over the regional council.

7. •The agreement was vehemently opposed by the Sri Lankans.
•From the part of the Tamilians, even though most Tamil
militant groups accepted this agreement, the LTTE rejected
the accord and refused to hand over their weapons to the
IPKF.
•The result was that the LTTE now found itself engaged in
military conflict with the Indian Army.
•The government of India then decided that the IPKF should
disarm the LTTE by force.

8. • The Indian Army launched number of assaults on the LTTE, including a
month-long campaign known as Operation Pawan to win control of the
Jaffna peninsula from the LTTE.
• When the IPKF engaged the LTTE, the then president of Sri Lanka,
Ranasinghe Premadasa, began supporting LTTE and funded LTTE with
arms.
• During the warfare with the LTTE, IPKF was also alleged to have made
human rights violation against the civilians.

9. • The Indo-Sri Lankan Accord, which had been unpopular amongst Sri Lankans
for giving India a major influence, now became a source of nationalist anger
and resentment as the IPKF was drawn fully into the conflict.
• Sri Lankans protested the presence of the IPKF, and the newly-elected Sri
Lankan president Ranasinghe Premadasa demanded its withdrawal, which was
completed by March 1990.
• On May 21, 1991, Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated and the LTTE was alleged to
be the perpetrator. As a result India declared the LTTE to be a terrorist outfit in
1992.

10. • The ethnic conflict between the Sinhalese majority and the
Tamil minority in the island state had brought the Indian
factor to forefront.
• It also put intolerable strains on the carefully nurtured
harmonious framework of bilateral relations between the
two countries.
• Sri Lanka's perception of the overbearing image of a huge
and powerful India underscored its deeply felt compulsion
for the assertion of its national security.

11. • In January 1991 the two countries reached an agreement that the final solution to the
ethnic problem of Sri Lanka could be solved only through political settlement.
• The two countries also agreed to upgrade the existing joint trade committees. Sri
Lanka on its part agreed to accept 2,00,000 Sri Lankan refugees camping in Tamil
Nadu.
• On its part, India assured Sri Lanka that she would not be party to any political
disintegration of Sri Lanka and would not allow its territory to be used as base for
terrorist activities against the island Republic.

12. • This stand of India greatly contributed to easing of tension between
two countries.
• The visit of President Chandrika Kumaratunga of Sri Lanka to India
in 1995 helped in re-establishing friendly and mutually beneficial
ties between the two countries.
• During her visit to India she proposed a free trade and investment
agreement to boost the economic co-operation between the two
countries.

13. •Trade between the two countries grew rapidly after entry into
force of the India-Sri Lanka Free Trade Agreement in March
2000.
•Both countries continued the dialogue on problems faced by
the fishermen of the two countries.
•It was agreed that these problems should be addressed in a
spirit of compassion and understanding.

14. • In the fierce fight between the LTTE and the Sri Lankan army since
2006, which ended with the complete destruction of LTTE in the
island in 2009, even though the then President Mahendra Rajapakshe
wanted India’s assistance to curb the LTTE, India did not repeat the
IPKF type of mistake and wanted Sri Lanka to come out with a
credible package for Tamils in Sri Lanka.
• Since the liquidation of the LTTE, India has been engaging with the
Sri Lankan government to implement the 13th
Amendment to the Sri
Lankan constitution, which emphasises devolution of powers to the Sri
Lankan Tamils.

15. • India continues to invest in the reconstruction of the war-torn northern
regions of Sri Lanka, even while accommodating the concerns of the
Tamil leadership in India.
• In the changed circumstances, India formulates its foreign policy by
taking broader national interests into account rather than pushed by
narrow regional interests.
• At the same time, India closely monitor Chinese overtures in Sri Lanka
and check the latter’s drift towards China.