New Delhi and Colombo are talking about a plan to give Sri Lanka two Dornier planes, which are used by the Sri Lankan military. In an interview with the Indian Express, Sri Lanka’s Foreign Minister G L Peiris said there is a plan to buy two Dornier planes. He met with External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and National Security Advisor Ajit K Doval in Delhi. There is no finality; no agreement has been reached. There are proposals and counter-proposals, and this is one of the things that are being talked about.”
He said that one of the things he talked about during his visit to Sri Lanka was the upcoming meeting of the UN Human Rights Council. Sri Lanka has been criticized for not meeting its 2015 promises to address rights violations in the aftermath of the war.
Dornier planes after Economic Lifeline
India has given Colombo an economic lifeline that includes a $500 million revolving credit line from the Exim Bank of India, a $1 billion credit line for food and pharmaceuticals, a deferment on the payment of $515 million, and a currency swap facility of $400 million. His visit comes just weeks after that.
It didn’t come up in any of his meetings, Peiris said. Last month, Sri Lankan Tamil parliamentarians sent a letter to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, asking for help with the implementation of this constitutional provision for decentralizing power that was put in place during India’s 1987 help.
Indian and Sri Lankan relations had reached a “high point” when Peiris took office in August 2021. Indian fears about China, which he said had no “rational basis,” had been “relegated to the past.” When talking about the two countries, he said that “the one flashpoint” between them was the fishermen’s issue. He said that this issue needed “urgent attention.”
He said that Sri Lanka and India are now trying to “change the nature of the relationship.” They want to move from a transactional level to a strategic partnership. One way to do this, he said, would be to “closer integrate the economies of India and Sri Lanka.” This would happen in areas like ports, energy, tourism, and pharmaceuticals. The two sides were planning to work together during Jaishankar’s visit in the second half of March. This group would include the two foreign ministers, the two fisheries ministers, and maybe some people from Tamil Nadu.
Talks at a very early stage
Indian official sources say that the two countries are in talks about giving each other two Dornier planes at a very early stage. The Dornier is a twin-engine plane that can be used for many different things. It is used by the Indian Navy and Coast Guard to keep an eye on the sea. It is used by the Indian Air Force, too. A company called Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd makes it for the government’s “Make in India” project with help from the Swiss company RUAG.
India has wanted to give Sri Lanka a plane that can see ships at sea for four years, but because of the recent tense relationship, the idea was never seriously discussed. When the Sri Lankan Air Force celebrated its 70th anniversary in March 2021, 23 planes from the IAF fleet took part in a flypast and aerobatics show. The Dornier planes were just one of them. At the time, the Indian High Commission said that Sri Lanka was “Priority One” for India when it came to the defense of India.
Peiris said that his government and New Delhi were trying to get a memorandum of understanding on an Indian $15 million fund for the refurbishment of Buddhist temples done more quickly. Peiris also said that the Sushma Swaraj Institute of Foreign Service and the Bandaranaike International Diplomatic Training Institute, which is in Colombo, were trying to work together. Another idea being talked about is for India to provide a 4,000-metric-ton floating dock.