November 20, 2011, 9:41 pm

The Sri Lankan government last week publicly thanked India for coming to its rescue during the critical balance-of-payment situation faced by the country.

Indian support helped Sri Lanka sustain the military campaign directed at the LTTE.

Senior Minister Dr. Sarath Amunugama expressed his gratitude for India’s emphatic support for the IMF Stand by Arrangement during the critical balance-of-payment situation faced by Sri Lanka.

The minister recalled the strong ties of friendship and economic relations between India and Sri Lanka based on a shared history and geographical linkages. Referring to the recession in the developed world, he termed India as a key driver of economic growth in the world economy. The National List MP highlighted that Sri Lanka’s economic growth was inextricably linked to the huge and growing market of India and that Sri Lanka would need to take advantage of that, besides other factors such as a literate work force, location, etc.

Amunugama was addressing a gathering at a lecture last Thursday by former Indian Foreign Secretary Shyam Saran on India and Sri Lanka and the Asian Resurgence, marking the launch of the India-Sri Lanka Foundation (ISLF).

Sri Lanka also praised India for successfully managing ethnic diversities in a federal democratic framework.

"The key lessons from India’s development efforts and its stature as a world’s largest democracy was its success in managing ethnic diversities in a democratic framework and its ability to reach out to the poorest sections of the society through innovative social schemes involving the closest cooperation between the central and the state governments in a stable federal structure," External Affairs Minister GL Peiris said.

In his welcome remarks, Indian HC Ashok K. Kantha mentioned that ISLF had played an important niche role as a catalytic agent in furthering a closer partnership between India and Sri Lanka and had been a crucible for spawning ideas that had resulted in many key projects. He underlined that ISLF was expanding its activities by launching new initiatives including an ISLF Fellowship, lecture series with quarterly lectures by eminent personalities form India, Sri Lanka and other countries on issues of contemporary relevance.

Prof. Peiris in his address remarked that the key lessons from India’s development efforts and its stature as a world’s a largest democracy were its success in managing ethnic diversity in a democratic framework and its ability to reach out to the poorest sections of the society through innovative social schemes involving the closest cooperation between the Central and the State Governments in a stable federal structure. He made a laudatory reference to India’s schemes for rural employment guarantee and for affirmative action.

In his address, Ambassador Saran highlighted the current phase of Asian resurgence, which he expected would be durable in nature unlike in the past and on how it had created new opportunities for engagement between India and Sri Lanka. He highlighted that the success of the India-Sri Lanka Free Trade Agreement was a pointer for both the countries to expand their economic linkages. He emphasised the advantage of increased connectivity and economic linkages between India and Sri Lanka which would provide Sri Lanka access to the huge Indian market. He gave examples of the KKS harbour and Northern Railway rehabilitation projects being implemented by India, and underlined that they would provide a fillip to the trade relations and also to people to people contacts.

Earlier this week Ambassador Saran also delivered a lecture at the University of Jaffna on Neighbourhood Policy and India-Sri Lanka Relations and a lecture on Challenge of Climate Change: Adding a new dimension to India-Sri Lanka Relation at the University of Ruhuna, Matara. All the three lectures and the subsequent interactive sessions received an enthusiastic response from the public.