My Dear Friends,

On the occasion of the 64th Republic Day of India, I extend my warm greetings and good wishes to my fellow citizens of India and to the friendly people and the Government of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka.

As another year passes by, India has reason to be proud of its continuing commitment to individual freedoms, secularism and pluralism. Amid the continuing turmoil in many parts of the world, India’s stature as a functioning democracy remains tall, despite challenges.

Our economy has not been immune to the troubles of the global economy. However, I have no doubt that our strong economic fundamentals, backed by sound policies and the soaring aspirations of our youth, will enable us to return to a higher growth path sooner rather than later. Government has taken a number of steps in recent months to reinvigorate growth and strengthen inclusive development.

On the external front, we have attached special importance to maintaining friendly ties with our neighbours. India believes in shared prosperity of the region and invites her neighbours to be part of a collective success story by building new bridges of engagement.

The India-Sri Lanka relationship is special. Our deep social, cultural and popular bonds forged over centuries and shared interests and concerns provide a solid foundation for further strengthening of our extremely close, and friendly relations. India is committed to being a partner of Sri Lanka in meeting its aspirations of peace, harmony, growth and development. Our relations are growing rapidly in all areas, political, trade and investment, security, education, sports and culture

People-to-people links constitute one of the cardinal pillars of our relationship. We were proud to undertake the island-wide exposition of Sacred Kapilavastu Relics recently. Its successful organisation bears testimony to the common cultural threads binding India and Sri Lanka. The exposition, witnessed by nearly 3.5 million devotees, traveled from India as part of the Joint Commemoration of the 2600th Anniversary of Enlightenment of Lord Buddha.

In another eloquent testimony to this fraternal bond, His Excellency the President of Sri Lanka laid the foundation stone of the University of Buddhist and Indic Studies at Sanchi, during his visit to India in September 2012.

Last year, our two countries marked the 150th birth anniversary of Rabindranath Tagore with great enthusiasm.  We have now agreed to jointly celebrate the 150th birth anniversaries of Swami Vivekananda in 2013-14 and of Anagarika Dharmapala in 2014-15.

In economic relations, India was Sri Lanka’s largest trading partner globally, and Sri Lanka again topped the list of India’s trading partners in South Asia. The bilateral trade turnover last year crossed US Dollar 5 billion mark. India was the leading source country in terms of foreign tourist arrivals and foreign direct investment into Sri Lanka. We will continue to enable Indian investment in Sri Lanka.

There are also striking success stories of Sri Lankan investment in India. Sri Lankan Airlines is one of the largest foreign airlines operating in India and over 250,000 Sri Lankans visited India last year.

The 8th session of the India-Sri Lanka Joint Commission, co-chaired by the Ministers of External Affairs of India and Sri Lanka, was held in New Delhi on 22 January 2013 with many positive outcomes.

A Joint Task Force is following up on several important proposals made during the visit of Hon’ble Anand Sharma, the Commerce, Industries and Textiles Minister of India, in August 2012. These include India’s partnership in setting up two manufacturing zones, one for engineering goods and automobile components and the other for pharmaceuticals.

The two countries have agreed to double bilateral trade to US Dollar 10 billion by 2015 and to move towards an enhanced framework for a special economic partnership.

The feasibility study on inter-connection of power grids is nearing completion, and the two Governments have also agreed to explore the feasibility of establishing physical connectivity across the Palk Straits. The Sampur Power Project will be implemented soon so that it could go on-stream by 2016. A host of other projects and initiatives in diverse areas have been agreed upon.

The Hon’ble Speaker of Lok Sabha, Mrs. Meira Kumar, led a large Indian delegation to the Commonwealth Parliamentary Conference held in Colombo in September 2012.  An all-party Parliamentary delegation, led by the Hon’ble Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Mrs. Sushma Swaraj, visited Sri Lanka in April 2012. There were several productive Ministerial visits in both directions last year.

On the development cooperation side, the pilot phase of the project for construction of 1000 houses was successfully completed in July 2012.  The next phase of the Indian Housing Project for 43,000 housing units in the Northern and Eastern Provinces was launched on 2 October 2012. This phase is progressing well with work already commencing on over 5,000 houses. We also hope to launch soon the third phase of the housing project, involving construction of 6,000 houses for estate workers and in the Northern & Eastern Provinces.

We successfully completed the project for restoration of the Southern Railway line in April 2012, ahead of schedule. The reconstruction project for the Northern Railway line is also progressing smoothly and is expected to be completed by December 2013, again ahead of schedule.

Under our Small Development Project Scheme, we have completed several projects successfully and continue to take up many new projects in different sectors. The delivery of our development partnership projects has been done in a timely manner in keeping with the requirements on the ground and as per the priorities set by the Government of Sri Lanka.

We have also made a three-fold increase in scholarship support to deserving Sri Lankan students as part of “India-Sri Lanka Knowledge Initiative”.

Our defence and security cooperation has also developed steadily, with several high-level visits, the inaugural Annual Defence Dialogue and service-level Staff Talks, and continuing training of Sri Lankan defence personnel in India.

India believes that the end of the armed conflict presents an unparalleled opportunity to build a better future for all the people of Sri Lanka. There has been impressive progress towards the resettlement of IDPs and reconstruction in conflict-affected areas. India has assisted in these endeavours. We look forward to early conclusion of the ongoing efforts to implement the many constructive recommendations of the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission. India will continue to support moves towards an early political settlement to address the ethnic issue.

As I look back on the remarkable progress made in bilateral relations over the past year, I am filled with optimism for the future of our relationship and look forward to working towards taking it to the next level.

Colombo