India – Sri Lanka Foundation
(Colombo Secretariat)

Ambassador Shyam Saran, former Foreign Secretary of India delivered a lecture at the Bandaranaike Center for International Studies (BCIS), Colombo on 17th November, 2011 on the theme “India and Sri Lanka and the Asian Resurgence” marking the launch of the India-Sri Lanka Foundation Public Lecture Series. Senior Minister for International Monetary Cooperation Dr. Sarath Amunugama and Minister for External Affairs Prof. G. L. Peiris were the Guests of Honour. The High Commissioner of India, H. E. Mr. Ashok K. Kantha, and the Chairman of BCIS Mr. Rajah Kuruppu also attended the event along with members of the diplomatic corps, members of Parliament, think-tanks, media and other distinguished guests.

In his welcome remarks, H.E Mr. 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, and a public lecture series with quarterly lectures by eminent personalities form India, Sri Lanka and other countries on issues of contemporary relevance.

The Guest of Honour, Dr. Sarath Amunugama expressed gratitude for India’s emphatic support to Sri Lanka for the IMF Stand-By- Arrangement during the critical balance-of-payments situation faced by Sri Lanka. He 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. He 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 this, besides other factors such as a literate work force, location, etc.

Prof. Peiris, in his address, remarked that the key lesson from India’s developmental efforts and its stature as world’s largest democracy was its ability to reach out to the poorest sections of the society through innovative social schemes and a complex web of rights and freedoms for such a vast multitude of humanity. In this context, 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 has created new opportunities for engagement between India and Sri Lanka. He also 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 emphasized 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 these will 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 “India’s 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.

ISLF which was established by a Memorandum of Understanding between the governments of India and Sri Lanka in 1998 in order to foster India - Sri Lanka relations through the enhancement of economic, scientific, technical and cultural cooperation and to promote greater understanding between the people of the two countries, would be inviting eminent personalities from India and Sri Lanka to speak on issues of contemporary concern on regular basis.