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Indo-Lanka
defence deal dumped The joint statement issued following the state visit to New Delhi by President Mahinda Rajapakse this week does not contain a reference to this proposed agreement. This agreement was worked out between former President Chandrika Kumaratunga and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in New Delhi in November 2004. "During the discussions on the Defence Cooperation Agreement, it was resolved that a bilateral Defence Cooperation Agreement and the MoU on the rehabilitation of the airfield at Palaly would be signed between the two Governments on mutually convenient dates," the Indo-Lanka joint statement of November 8, 2004 issued in New Delhi and Colombo stated after President Kumaratunga's state visit to India. Last Friday's joint statement following the Rajapakse-Singh summit talks made no mention of this, questioning the continuity of such discussions at heads of government-level no less. Nor has the subject figured during pre-visit diplomatic consultations, The Sunday Times has learnt. It is well known that the pro-LTTE lobby in Tamil Nadu, which is part of the Manmohan Singh coalition in New Delhi, has successfully thwarted the Indian government from pursuing this agreement. The Sri Lanka government that was nudging the Indian side to sign this agreement, it seems has just dropped the issue to placate the Indians. Ironically, this was after President Kumaratunga's then Defence Secretary, Cyril Herath discussed the contours of such an agreement with his Indian counterparts during a visit to New Delhi. Thereafter, then Indian Defence Secretary was due in Colombo whilst en route to Thailand to sign the agreement. Another shift in the positions has been on the Sethusamudram Canal Project. The November 2004 joint communiqué referred to an agreement that "an exchange of views on the economic and environmental aspects in relation to Sri Lanka would be arranged between the technical experts of India and Sri Lanka". Ignoring this solemn pledge following the Kumaratunga-Singh summit talks, and before any "exchange of views on the economic and environmental aspects in relation to Sri Lanka" was arranged, the Indian government went ahead by cutting the first sod for the project in the state of Tamil Nadu on July 2, 2005. Prime Minister Singh who was a party to that agreement with President Kumaratunga himself did the honours at the ground-breaking ceremony for the canal project. The Indian government reacted to Sri Lankan economic and environmental concerns expressed by then Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar by saying that New Delhi would still study these concerns. Mr. Kadirgamar had then expressed reservations that India had proceeded with the canal project without informing Colombo despite the November 2004 pledge. Friday's joint communiqué has now shifted from the original position taken up by the two governments in November 2004, with the Sri Lankan side also made to concur with India to the notion that "the project would bring in its wake development opportunities". The only other reference to the subject came in an oblique way when Indian defence officials sounded out Defence Secretary Gothabaya Rajapakse on the prospects of their involvement in the development of the Kankesanthurai harbour -- a factor that would have given them leverage with the ongoing Sethusamudram project. There
was a further surrender on this controversial point, when Sri Lanka
conceded to the study of the environmental (the economic aspects
in relation to Sri Lanka has been dropped now) concerns "as
and when necessary". |
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