Sri Lanka is banking on Lord Ram. The country—which is slowly emerging out of the economic crisis—wants to boost tourism from India. And promoting the Ramayana circuit—“to promote awareness’’—to enhance tourism might be a way to up the numbers. The Ramayana circuit and the need to develop it to improve people-to-people contact find a mention in the joint vision of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Ranil Wickremesinghe for India-Sri Lanka Economic Partnership.
“The largest source of inbound tourists to Sri Lanka has been from India,’’ said Vinay Kwatra, foreign secretary, at a media briefing in the capital. The country--which has been on the verge of economic collapse--is now hoping to boost tourism numbers by focusing on Hindu trail, the Ramayana trail as well as the Buddhist circuit. This idea is not new. It was explored even in 2019, when the Sri Lankan tourism ministry was hoping to attract a million tourists from India. But post the economic crisis, tourism numbers matter even more.
The development of these trails find a mention in the vision document released by the ministry of external affairs. This document focuses on areas of cooperation the two countries need to work on to promote connectivity and catalyse prosperity in the region. “The vision is to accelerate mutual cooperation in areas of tourism, power, trade, higher education, skill development and connectivity,’’ said Modi. “The vision is to strengthen maritime, air, energy and people-to-people connectivity between the people of both the countries,” he said.
“Talks will start soon on an agreement on economic and technological cooperation,” the Prime Minister said.
India, however, is not leaving the closer connectivity between the two countries to the gods. The visit of the Sri Lankan President is to put into place concrete—and much stronger bonds—than just the glue of religion. And the thrust on economic ties will certainly boost the relationship. On the cards is strengthening digital links by allowing UPI-based payments between the two countries. This may happen within the next two or three months.
There will be a focus on renewable energy as well as “to establish a high capacity power grid interconnection between India and Sri Lanka to enable bidirectional electricity trade between Sri Lanka and other regional countries,’’ according to the vision document.
This is the first visit of President Wickremesinghe—after he took charge a year ago. While the two leaders spelt out their joint vision for the two countries, India has also chosen to spell out the big picture. China, may have not been mentioned, but the dragon lurked in the room. “It is natural to speak about concerns when we speak about the maritime domain,’’ said Kwatra. It is well known that India was less than happy with the Chinese 'spy' vessel that docked at the Hambantota port. The challenges, 'the specifics' of it, were brought up 'appropriately',” Kwatra said.