New Delhi: India’s expanding development partnership with Sri Lanka is emerging as a key instrument of its strategic competition with China in the Indian Ocean, as New Delhi shifts its engagement beyond humanitarian assistance towards long-term investments in connectivity, energy security, digital infrastructure and economic integration.
The outcomes of Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri’s visit to Colombo on Wednesday underscore India’s effort to reinforce its position as Sri Lanka’s most dependable partner while offering an alternative development model to Beijing’s infrastructure-driven approach.
India, along with China, remains Sri Lanka’s largest bilateral development partner.
Indian assistance involves grants, concessional lines of credit (LoCs), capacity-building programmes and humanitarian aid.
Since the economic crisis and subsequent natural disasters in Sri Lanka, New Delhi has expanded its development cooperation under its Neighbourhood First Policy and Vision MAHASAGAR (Mutual and Holistic Advancement for Security and Growth Across Regions), focusing on connectivity, energy security, healthcare, housing, transport and digital infrastructure.
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Sugeeswara Senadhira, Secretary General of the Sri Lanka-based Asian Geopolitics, Sustainability & Peace Council think tank, said that apart from grants, India also offers soft loans with 1 per cent interest and a grace period of three years.
“China only offers commercial loans,” Senadhira, who also served as media advisor to four former presidents and one prime minister, told ETV Bharat over phone from Colombo.
He said that loans from the Paris Club, an informal group of official creditor nations, and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) also have stringent conditions attached.
“So, India’s terms are more acceptable,” Senadhira said. “Sri Lankans look at India’s development cooperation very favourably.”
During Misri’s visit to Colombo, both sides reviewed progress on several flagship projects that are either under implementation or nearing execution.
