India, Sri Lanka to discuss oil pipeline, energy hub & provincial polls

India and Sri Lanka are likely to advance talks on laying an undersea oil pipeline linking the two neighbouring nations when Prime Minister Narendra Modi will host President Ranil Wickremesinghe in New Delhi later this week.

Modi and Wickremesinghe are also expected to discuss India’s plan for setting up a special economic zone at Trincomalee on the northeastern coast of Sri Lanka, in addition to renewable energy projects in the neighbouring country. The two sides are also expected to discuss connectivity between the electricity grids of the two nations.

Read | India to keep helping Sri Lanka overcome financial crisis

The Tamil National Alliance – the largest group of Tamil lawmakers from northern and eastern Sri Lanka – also wrote a letter to Modi urging him to press Colombo to hold provincial elections at the earliest and devolve power to the elected councils in accordance with the 13th amendment of the constitution of the country.

The 13th amendment to the Constitution of Sri Lanka was an outcome of the July 29, 1987 accord between New Delhi and Colombo. It was passed by Sri Lankan parliament in November 1987 resulting in the creation of the provincial councils. The process of devolution of power to the local governments as envisaged by it remained incomplete though. The elections to the provincial councils of Sri Lanka are also long overdue. The terms of the elected provincial councils ended in 2018 and 2019.

Wickremesinghe’s visit to New Delhi on Friday is going to be his first after taking over as the president of Sri Lanka on July 22 amid an unprecedented economic crisis in the island nation. This is also the first visit at the level of leadership from Colombo to New Delhi after the economic crisis triggered a political turmoil resulting in a change of regime, with the ouster of Gotabaya and Mahinda Rajapaksa from power.

New Delhi extended assistance worth about $4 billion to Sri Lanka last year, through multiple Credit lines and currency support, to tide it over the economic crisis. India also recently extended by one more year the tenure of the $ 1 billion credit facility it had extended to Sri Lanka in March 2022 to help the cash-strapped nation to procure fuel, medicines, food items and industrial raw materials. India was also the first creditor nation in January 2023 to convey the financing assurances needed to kick start the IMF process to bail out Sri Lanka with a $2.9 billion bailout package, followed by China.

India and China vie for geopolitical influence in the Indian Ocean region. A source in New Delhi told DH that the Modi-Wickremesinghe talks in New Delhi would see both sides discussing several economic projects India would fund in Sri Lanka. The two sides might discuss a proposed project to lay an undersea oil pipeline from a refinery in Chennai in India to Trincomalee in Sri Lanka, said the source.

Sri Lanka in January 2022 worked out a new agreement with India for joint development of the oil storage tanks, which were built by the British Government during World War II in Trincomalee.

India is keen to support Sri Lanka’s plan for developing Trincomalee as an energy hub, the source in New Delhi said. The source added that provincial elections, devolution of power and implementation of the 13th amendment of the Constitution of India would also figure in the talks between the prime minister and the Sri Lankan president.