{"id":33197,"date":"2023-01-21T01:27:05","date_gmt":"2023-01-20T19:57:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=33197"},"modified":"2025-04-19T20:05:55","modified_gmt":"2025-04-19T14:35:55","slug":"visit-of-external-affairs-minister-to-sri-lanka","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/visit-of-external-affairs-minister-to-sri-lanka\/","title":{"rendered":"Visit of External Affairs Minister to Sri Lanka"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3><strong>What\u2019s in today\u2019s article?<\/strong><\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Why in news?<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>What is Tamil Issue in Sri Lanka?<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>What is the 13th amendment of the Constitution of Sri Lanka?<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>How much economic help India provided to support the recovery of Sri Lanka?<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>News Summary: Visit of External Affairs Minister to Sri Lanka<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Key highlights of the visit of External Affairs Minister to Sri Lanka<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<h2><strong>Why in news?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>External Affairs Minister (EAM) Dr. S Jaishankar paid an official visit to Sri Lanka.\u00a0<\/li>\n<li>The visit is testimony to the importance that India attaches to its close and friendly relations with Sri Lanka.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><strong>What is Tamil Issue in Sri Lanka?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Communal tensions between the Sinhalese and Tamil communities had been brewing since the early 1940s.<\/li>\n<li>The nearly three-decade long armed conflict between Sri Lankan forces and the LTTE came to an end in May 2009.<\/li>\n<li>Since then, Indian govt is persuading Sri Lankan govt for greater devolution of power to Tamils.<\/li>\n<li>The need for national reconciliation through a political settlement of the ethnic issue has been reiterated by India at the highest levels.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<h2><strong>What is the 13<sup>th<\/sup> amendment of the Constitution of Sri Lanka?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>The Sri Lankan Parliament passed the Thirteenth Amendment to the constitution in November 1987 with the objective of creating provincial councils based on the provisions of the Indo-Sri Lanka Accord of July 1987.\u00a0<\/li>\n<li>The Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution provides for:\u00a0\n<ul>\n<li>The establishment of Provincial Councils\u00a0<\/li>\n<li>The appointment and powers of the Governor of Provinces\u00a0<\/li>\n<li>Membership and tenure of Provincial Councils\u00a0\u00a0<\/li>\n<li>The legislative powers of the Provincial Councils\u00a0<\/li>\n<li>Tamil as an official language and English as a link language\u00a0<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Elections to the three provinces \u2013 Northern, Central and North Western Provinces held.<\/li>\n<li>However, the terms of Sri Lanka\u2019s nine provincial councils expired about three years ago, and they have remained defunct since.\u00a0\u00a0<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<h2><strong>How much economic help did India provide to support the recovery of Sri Lanka?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Sri Lanka is facing the double whammy of rising prices and high debt.<\/li>\n<li>India had offered a helping hand to Sri Lanka in order to support its recovery. The help extended by India includes:\n<ul>\n<li>In December 2021, India and Sri Lanka agreed to a four-pronged approach to help mitigate Sri Lanka\u2019s economic crisis.\n<ul>\n<li>This agreement included &#8211; Urgent food and health security package; Addressing the balance of payment issues; Energy security package; Growth and employment generation.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>In March 2022, India announced a $ 1 billion line of credit to Sri Lanka. Earlier, in February 2022, India had extended a $ 500 million line of credit to Sri Lanka to help it purchase petroleum products.<\/li>\n<li>Besides the above economic packages, <strong>India also made investment<\/strong> to help Sri Lanka repair its economy. These included:\n<ul>\n<li>India\u2019s NTPC signed an agreement for setting up a solar plant in Sampur in the eastern province of Trincomalee,\u00a0<\/li>\n<li>The Adani group has signed up for another wind\/ solar project in the Mannar and Ponneryn areas of northern Sri Lanka,<\/li>\n<li>Indian Oil subsidiary Lanka India Oil Corporation and Ceylong Petroleum have signed an agreement to jointly develop the Trincomalee Oil Tank Farm.\u00a0<\/li>\n<li>Delhi is also pushing for joint development of the Palaly airport and Kankesanthurai harbour in the northern Jaffna peninsula.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>In November 2021, India had given 100 tonnes of nano nitrogen liquid fertilizers to Sri Lanka.<\/li>\n<li>Earlier, RBI has extended a currency swap of $400 million and deferred payments owed by the central bank of Sri Lanka worth several hundred million dollars.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><strong>News Summary: Visit of External Affairs Minister to Sri Lanka<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>In order to further strengthen the ties with Sri Lanka, External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar paid an official visit to the Island country.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<h2><strong>Key highlights of the visit of External Affairs Minister to Sri Lanka<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>\u00a0EAM highlighted India\u2019s support for Sri Lanka\u2019s economic recovery<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>EAM said that India did not wait for other bilateral creditors but did what is right for Sri Lanka\u2019s economic recovery.\n<ul>\n<li>Sri Lanka had secured a bailout package of $2.9 billion from IMF.<\/li>\n<li>However, this package will be cleared only after Sri Lanka\u2019s official creditors \u2014 China, Japan and India \u2014 have provided adequate financing assurances.<\/li>\n<li>On January 16, India sent written financing assurances to the IMF, becoming the first bilateral creditor of the island nation to officially support its crucial debt restructure programme.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>In 2022, India extended about US $ 4 billion in terms of credits and roll overs to help Sri Lanka get through an economic crisis.<\/li>\n<li>India will encourage greater investments in the Sri Lankan economy, especially in the core areas like energy, tourism and infrastructure.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<h2><strong>Full implementation of the 13th Amendment<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>EAM said that India considers the full implementation of the 13th Amendment in Sri Lanka as critical for achieving reconciliation with the minority Tamil community.<\/li>\n<li>He also said that early conduct of provincial elections is critical for both the political and economic stability of the debt-ridden island nation.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h3><strong>Q1)<\/strong>\u00a0<strong>Which Sea channel separates India and Sri Lanka?<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>\u00a0Sri Lanka is separated from India by a narrow channel of sea, formed by Palk Strait and the Gulf of Mannar.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3><strong>Q2)<\/strong>\u00a0<strong>Which channel separates Lakshadweep and Andaman?<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>\u00a010-degree Channel separates the Andaman Islands and the Nicobar Islands. 9-degree Channel separates the island of Minicoy from the main Lakshadweep archipelago.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>Source:<\/strong>\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/timesofindia.indiatimes.com\/india\/devolution-of-power-key-to-tamil-reconciliation-jaishankar-in-sri-lanka\/articleshow\/97185801.cms\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><u>Devolution of power key to Tamil reconciliation: Jaishankar in Sri Lanka<\/u><\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/mea.gov.in\/outoging-visit-detail.htm?36129\/Visit+of+External+Affairs+Minister+to+Maldives+and+Sri+Lanka+January+1820+2023\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><u>MEA<\/u><\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.thehindu.com\/news\/national\/india-did-not-wait-for-others-did-what-was-right-for-sri-lankas-recovery-eam-jaishankar\/article66412365.ece\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><u>The Hindu<\/u><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>India had offered a helping hand to Sri Lanka in order to support its recovery.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":33198,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-33197","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-upsc-mains-current-affairs","8":"no-featured-image-padding"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33197","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33197"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33197\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33198"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33197"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33197"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33197"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}