Speaking at a joint media briefing with his Sri Lankan counterpart Dinesh Gunawardena, external affairs minister S Jaishankar said that Covid pandemic has given the two sides an opportunity to collaborate even further.
“It (Covid) hasn’t been able to dent our bilateral cooperation. In fact, high level contacts were maintained and indeed strengthened during the past year and the virtual summit between our Prime Ministers was the watermark of our relationship in 2020,” he said.
Jaishankar is visiting Colombo over three months after Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Sri Lankan counterpart Mahinda Rajapaksa held the virtual summit in September during which the two sides agreed to further expand ties in a range of areas such as anti-terror cooperation, maritime security and trade and investment.
“We are now looking at post-Covid cooperation and I carry back with me Sri Lanka’s interest in accessing vaccines from India,” said Jaishankar, who is here on a three-day visit – his first foreign trip of the year. This is also the first by a foreign dignitary to Sri Lanka in the new year.
Sri Lankan leadership formally requested Indian assistance to obtain the Covid vaccine during meetings with Jaishankar in Colombo.
Jaishankar underlined that both the neighbours are now facing immediate challenges of post-Covid recovery. “This is not just a public health issue but also a crisis of the economy,” he said.
Assuring that India will be a “dependable and reliable partner” of Lanka, Jaishankar said the country is open to strengthening its relationship with the island nation on the basis of “mutual trust, mutual interest, mutual respect and mutual sensitivity”.
He also spoke on the need to ensure aspirations of the minority Tamils are addressed within a united Sri Lanka.
“India has been strongly committed to the unity, stability and territorial integrity of Sri Lanka. Our support for the reconciliation process in Sri Lanka is long standing as indeed for an inclusive political outlook that encourages ethnic harmony,” he said.
“It is in Sri Lanka’s own interests that expectations of Tamil people for equality, justice, peace and dignity within a united Sri Lanka are fulfilled. That applies equally to the commitments made by the Sri Lanka government on meaningful devolution including the thirteenth amendment of the Constitution,” he said.
