Sri Lankan economist and politician Harsha de Silva on Saturday lauded India’s growth over the years, saying that it feels good when India is doing well. He added that India shouldn’t think of Sri Lanka as a foreign country or foreign land because Lanka is part of the Indian story. He emphasized that India must adopt a common approach to partnership rather than maintaining a mere business relationship, a true partnership.
Expressing optimism over India-Sri Lanka ties, Silva said both countries are moving in the right direction, with strong political will and a shared willingness among people to collaborate, making it a positive story for both nations and something critical to leverage.
Silva, who is an MP from Colombo, Sri Lanka, speaking at the Zee Media WION Global Innovation and Leadership Summit, said, “You shouldn’t think of Sri Lanka as a foreign country or foreign land because Lanka is part of the Indian story. We must think about this not as an agreement with some political officer that you sign and try to improve upon, but rather as a common approach to partner as opposed to having a mere business relationship, a partnership.”
Silva added, “I think we are moving in the right direction. There is political will and people are happy to collaborate. It’s a good story, a positive story for us that is certainly something critical to leverage upon.”
Pointing at India and Sri Lanka’s ties, the Sri Lankan politician said that Sri Lanka’s connection to India goes a long way back.
“It feels good when India is doing well. At the rate India is growing and producing things, Sri Lanka’s connection to India goes a long way. We talked about Buddhism: it was Tapassu and Bhallika who were the first lay disciples of the Buddha who came here five centuries before Christ, and from that point the merchant banking trade began. There has been so much connection between these two countries. Long before the banks were created, commercial banks and the British banks, it was the Chettiars who did business in Ceylon, Pettah and so on,” he said.
Emphasizing the need to look beyond missiles and air superiority, Silva stated that maritime security, freedom of navigation, and Sri Lanka’s central position in the Indian Ocean offer extensive opportunities for deeper cooperation in the defense sector, encompassing manufacturing, surveillance, and services, thereby establishing the country as a key regional security partner.
“In the case of defence missiles and air superiority, all that is granted. But what about maritime security and the ocean? The recent incident about IRIS Dena shows we cannot just think about air superiority. We have to start thinking about the ocean, freedom of navigation, and the fact that Sri Lanka is the centre of the Indian Ocean, whether you like it or not. We must be punching way above our weight class in order to ensure that we become a real partner in the region and the world as a security provider and as a partner in that exercise,” he said.
The Sri Lankan politician added, “If you look at the recent purchase of Colombo Dockyard by Mazagon, a large Indian naval shipbuilding company that moved the majority ownership from Japan to India, what do they do? They build warships and submarines. And so therefore, while on that, there is a whole range of defence-related manufacturing, surveillance and services that Sri Lanka has to be an important partner in. So if you think about it that way, there is so much scope there as well.”
