India will build hybrid power plants in three islands off the coast of Jaffna, effectively replacing the Chinese proposal that Sri Lanka approved last year.
The project’s Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed late Monday during a meeting between visiting External Affairs Minister (EAM) S. Jaishankar and his Sri Lankan colleague G.L. Peiris. After the recent agreements for the National Thermal Power Corporation’s solar venture in eastern Sampur town and the Adani Group’s renewable energy projects in Mannar and Pooneryn in the north, this is the third Indian energy project coming up in Sri Lanka’s north and east.
Following a competitive proposal funded by the Asia Development Bank, Sri Lanka’s Cabinet voted in January 2021 to grant renewable energy projects in the Nainativu, Delft, or Neduntheevu, and Analaitivu islands to Chinese business Sinosoar-Etechwin. India was quick to express its alarm to Sri Lanka about a Chinese project being built in Palk Bay, just 50 kilometers off the coast of Tamil Nadu.
India offered work in Sri Lanka
In lieu of a loan, New Delhi offered to carry out the identical project with a grant. Colombo, unable to choose a side for over a year put the project on hold, ostensibly deterring China. The Chinese Ambassador in Colombo recently expressed uncommon criticism of the projects being halted for “unknown reasons,” claiming that it conveyed the wrong message to potential foreign investors.
Meanwhile, India and Sri Lanka have agreed to establish a Maritime Rescue Coordination Center (MRCC), indicating increased defense cooperation between the two countries. Last Monday, the Cabinet approved the project, which involves Bharath Electronics and a $ 6 million Indian contribution.
In addition, India will assist in the development of fisheries harbors in Point Pedro, Pesalai, and Gurunagar in the Northern Province, as well as Balapitiya, south of the capital Colombo, as well as providing computer labs and smart boards to schools in the southern Galle district, extending a grant for Sri Lanka’s Unique Digital Identity project, and collaborating in diplomatic training, according to a statement.
TNA-Gotabaya talks
India has welcomed recent negotiations between President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and the Tamil National Alliance (TNA), the largest grouping of parliamentarians elected from the north and east, on Sri Lanka’s long-pending Tamil question.
The Indian High Commission said the Tamil leaders updated the visiting EAM about their meeting with Mr. Rajapaksa on March 25 in a separate statement released hours after Mr. Jaishankar’s meeting with a TNA delegation on Monday. The release of political prisoners, land utilization, missing individuals, 13th Amendment implementation, and diaspora investment was among the topics discussed in the meeting, according to the statement.
Mr. Jaishankar discussed it with the President when he called, according to the statement, which did not go into detail about the conversation. During this tour, the EAM has made no public comments on the Tamil question or power devolution, however, he did “address” the realization of Tamil aspirations for equality, justice, peace, and dignity in a tweet after his meeting with the TNA.
During his most recent visit, in January 2021, he sent a strong message to Sri Lanka’s leadership, stating that it was in “Sri Lanka’s own interest” for the Tamil people’s demands to be met. “That applies equally to the Sri Lankan government’s obligations on substantial devolution, including the 13th Amendment,” he said at the time at a Colombo press conference.
Mr. Jaishankar welcomed “the positive developments” regarding the issues on the Government-TNA agenda, according to an official statement released on Monday. He also emphasized that the Indian government was “consistently supportive” of the realization of the Tamils’ aspirations for equality, justice, peace, and dignity within the framework of a united Sri Lanka, in addition to its ongoing development partnership in the region.
The government promised to look into the release of long-detained suspects arrested under Sri Lanka’s widely criticized terrorism law, land grabs by state agencies, enforced disappearances, and development of the north and east in last week’s meeting, the first between the TNA and Mr. Rajapaksa since his election in 2019, the government made fresh assurances to address long-pending Tamil concerns, promising to look into the release of long-detained suspects arrested under Sri Lanka’s widely criticized terrorism law.
The administration, on the other hand, has put off debating the TNA’s main demand for a political solution based on a new constitutional framework that gives provinces more power. According to sources present at the meeting, Mr. Jaishankar encouraged the TNA to pursue the issues that the government has pledged to solve rather than waiting for the new constitutional solution, which could take time.
According to the Indian High Commission, the External Affairs Minister also met with Fisheries Minister Douglas Devananda to discuss the fishermen’s struggle and power devolution.