In talks with India on two Dornier plane: Sri Lanka FM

In an interview to The Indian Express, Sri Lanka’s Foreign Minister GL Peiris, who met External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and National Security Advisor Ajit Ok Doval in New Delhi, mentioned: “There is a proposal for the purchase of two Dornier aircraft. There is no finality, nothing has been agreed upon. There are proposals and counter proposals, and it is one of the matters under discussion.”

He mentioned one of many issues mentioned throughout his go to was the upcoming UN Human Rights Council session, the place Sri Lanka has been repeatedly hauled up for falling again on its 2015 commitments to deal with rights violations in direction of post-war nationwide reconciliation.

His go to comes weeks after India offered an financial lifeline to Colombo that features a $500-million revolving credit score line from Exim Bank of India, a $1-bn credit score line for meals and prescribed drugs, a deferral on the settlement of $515 million with the Asian Clearing Union, and a forex swap facility of $400 million.

There was no dialogue concerning the implementation of the thirteenth Amendment in its conferences, Peiris mentioned. Last month, Sri Lankan Tamil parliamentarians had written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in search of India’s help within the implementation of this constitutional provision for devolution of powers that was included throughout India’s 1987 intervention.

Peiris, who assumed workplace in August 2021, mentioned relations between India and Sri Lanka had reached a “high point”. India’s considerations about China, which he mentioned had no “rational basis”, had been “consigned to the past”. However, he flagged the fishermen’s concern between the 2 international locations as “the one flashpoint”, requiring “urgent attention”.

He mentioned Sri Lanka and India had been now in search of to “transform the character of the relationship, elevating it from a transactional level to strategic partnership”. One of the principle parts of this, he mentioned, could be via “closer integration of the economy of India with that of Sri Lanka” in sectors reminiscent of ports, vitality, tourism and hospitality, and prescribed drugs.

The two sides, he mentioned, had been planning a joint working group through the go to by Jaishankar within the second half of March, that would come with the 2 international ministers, the 2 fisheries ministers, and probably some illustration from Tamil Nadu.

Indian official sources confirmed that the 2 sides had been in “very early” stage discussions on the availability of the 2 Dornier plane.

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The Dornier is a twin-engine multi-purpose plane, utilized by the Indian Navy and Coast Guard for maritime surveillance. It can also be utilized by the Indian Air Force. It is manufactured by Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd beneath license from Swiss firm RUAG, and is a showpiece of the federal government’s “Make In India” programme.

The proposal for India to switch a maritime surveillance plane to Sri Lanka has existed for 4 years, however with the coolness in relations within the current previous, the matter was by no means significantly mentioned.

The Dornier plane had been amongst 23 from the IAF fleet that took half in a flypast and aerobatics show through the Sri Lankan Air Force’s seventieth anniversary in March 2021. At that point, the Indian High Commission mentioned Sri Lanka was “Priority One” for India within the protection sphere.

Peiris mentioned his authorities and New Delhi had been seeking to finalize extra instantly a memorandum of understanding on an Indian $15-million fund for the refurbishment of Buddhist temples, and one other settlement on collaboration between the Sushma Swaraj Institute of Foreign Service and the Colombo-based Bandaranaike International Diplomatic Training Institute. Another proposal beneath dialogue is for India to provide a 4,000-metric tonne floating dock.

Sri Lanka is “hoping”, Peiris mentioned, that Prime Minister Modi will have the ability to attend in individual the BIMSTEC summit which it’s internet hosting this yr because the chair of the grouping. The summit is to be held within the hybrid format.

“There’s so much that has happened during the last few months that there could be a real substance to that visit,” he mentioned.

The resolution on whether or not to ask the chief of the Myanmar junta that seized energy in a coup final yr must be “collegial”, and Sri Lanka would seek the advice of all different members of the regional grouping together with Bangladesh and Thailand.

Peiris mentioned Sri Lanka was “in close touch” with India on the upcoming UNHRC session, at which Commissioner Michelle Bachelet is scheduled to current a second draft report on Sri Lanka. The first, introduced final yr, was a searing criticism of Sri Lanka’s failure to deal with post-war points, and the emergence of latest challenges such because the marginalization of the Muslim minority together with the Tamils.

“India is very much aware of all the progress that has been made in the recent past, particularly with regard to the work which has been done on the ground by the so called local mechanisms, such as the Office on Missing Persons, Office for Reparations , Office for National Unity and Reconciliation, the Sustainable Development Goals 16 Council and the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka,” he mentioned.

In November 2019, Sri Lanka withdrew from the co-sponsorship of a 2015 UNHRC decision committing it to undertake a number of steps in direction of addressing ethnic reconciliation, together with via justice for rights violations, tracing lacking individuals and reparations to the Tamil group.

Peiris mentioned the decision pitted Sri Lanka in opposition to its personal armed forces, and that’s the reason President Gotabaya Rajapaksa withdrew from its co-sponsorship. But, he mentioned, there have been steps that Sri Lanka was taking by itself, together with reform of the Prevention of Terrorism Act. He described as “unfair” the criticism inside Sri Lanka that the reforms had been inadequate.

Earlier this month, Sri Lanka launched a Muslim lawyer controversially arrested beneath the PTA after the 2019 Easter bombings. Peiris dismissed ideas that these steps had been being taken as Colombo was anxious about punitive motion by the European Union like withdrawing preferential tariffs beneath the Europe Generalized System of Preferences Plus scheme for Sri Lankan exports.

He mentioned his authorities was assured that this might not occur, however within the “unlikely” situation that it might be withdrawn, it might damage probably the most weak sections of Sri Lanka’s individuals, together with ladies within the garment trade and fishing communities.

“So for those who take it away, it’s not a punitive measure in opposition to the federal government, it’s a punitive measure directed in opposition to the poorer sections of the Sri Lankan group, least in a position to bear that added burden. It merely is senseless,” he mentioned.