In its report titled India-Sri Lanka Relations and the Way Ahead, the Parliamentary Committee on External Affairs, chaired by Shashi Tharoor, highlighted Sri Lanka’s assurance that its territory would not be used in ways that undermine India’s security interests. The report, submitted to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla on September 25, outlines recommendations to strengthen bilateral ties.
A parliamentary committee has urged the Indian government to engage with Sri Lanka at all bilateral levels to minimise prison terms for Indian fishermen caught fishing in Sri Lankan waters and prevent the seizure of their boats, warning that such confiscations threaten their livelihoods.
The panel also made a recommendation to the Ministry of External Affairs by identifying other potential routes, such as Thoothukudi to Colombo, to improve ferry service between the two nations, and increasing the number of direct flights between them. It emphasised that negotiating an agreement like the Economic and Technology Cooperation Agreement (ETCA) should be guided by the principle of good neighbourliness and not based on a principle of strict reciprocity alone.
The Committee also took note of an incident in which Iranian warship IRIS Dena was recently torpedoed off the coast near Sri Lanka.