India, Lanka pact 4 deals

New Delhi: India and Sri Lanka on Tuesday inked four pacts, but not the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA).

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Sri Lankan counterpart Ranil Wickramasinghe, however, agreed to clinch the much-awaited deal on bilateral trade and investment by mid-2016.

The four pacts inked after the meeting at Hyderabad House here included an agreement for orbit frequency coordination for a Saarc satellite.

A S Kiran Kumar, chairman of the Indian Space Research Organisation, and Mangala Samaraveera, Foreign Minister of Sri Lanka, signed the agreement – the first of a series of bilateral pacts New Delhi intends to ink with all south Asian neighbours to realise the Saarc satellite, Modi’s pet project.
Wickramasinghe is on his maiden visit to India after he was re-elected as prime minister of Sri Lanka last month.

The two countries on Tuesday inked two MoUs, one paving the way for supply of medical equipment from India to the district hospital at Vavuniya in Sri Lanka and another for renewal of a pact for New Delhi’s grant assistance to small development projects in the island



nation. They also exchanged letters for India’s support to start emergency ambulance services in Sri Lanka.

India has been pressing Colombo hard for early signing of CEPA. “We both want deeper economic engagement. We would like to see our trade grow and become more balanced for Sri Lanka,” Modi told journalists after his meeting with Wickramasinghe.

The Sri Lankan prime minister said that discussions on a bilateral arrangement to boost trade and economic cooperation had been going on for quite some time. He said that both the countries should be able to reach an agreement in principle and a framework document on the CEPA by end of 2015, while a final deal should be clinched by mid-2016.

India’s trade with Sri Lanka was worth $5.2 billion in 2013-14. India’s exports to Sri Lanka were worth $4.6 billion, while imports from the island nation were worth $600 million.

New Delhi and Colombo have been negotiating a CEPA to build upon the bilateral Free Trade Agreement, which has been in force since March 2000. The CEPA is likely to have wider coverage, including trade in services, investment and economic cooperation.