Sri Lanka and India have pledged to strengthen military ties and widen maritime links with neighbours after security talks, the president’s office said on Sunday, as New Delhi moves to counter Chinese influence in the region.
China, a longtime regional rival of India, has been widening its footprint in the region, including building ports and expressways and upgrading airports in Sri Lanka and the Maldives.
India’s National Security Advisor Ajit Doval met on Saturday with recently elected Sri Lanka President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and discussed setting up a maritime research coordination centre, Rajapaksa’s office said in a statement.
It did not give details of the proposed centre but said other nations in the region should be included as observers.
It said the two countries also discussed closer military and coastguard cooperation.
‘Geography a big advantage for India’
“Sri Lanka-India military ties go back a long way so it’s nothing new, but what is important is clearly a greater incentive for these ties because of the China factor,” said Jabin Thomas Jacob, Associate Professor at Shiv Nadar University in Noida, India.
“India cannot match China in terms of economic clout but geography is a big advantage for India, therefore India’s neighbours have to take that into account.”
The meeting followed Gotabaya’s visit to New Delhi last November for talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who offered $450m in aid to Sri Lanka after his landslide victory in the presidential electon.
Sri Lanka has been facing an economic and debt crisis, and a series of attacks last April wiped out its vibrant tourism sector plunging the South Asian island nation into further economic and security uncertainty.
Local media reports said Gotabaya will travel to China – his second foreign visit since coming to power – while his brother, Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa will visit India on his first overseas trip.
No exact dates have been announced, but official sources said it could happen within weeks.
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