Published : September 9, 2026 at 10:05 PM IST
Updated : September 9, 2026 at 10:23 PM IST
New Delhi: At a time when geopolitical competition is intensifying across the Indian Ocean, and external powers are seeking greater strategic space in India’s maritime neighbourhood, New Delhi is moving to reinforce its security partnerships with Sri Lanka.
Defence Minister Rajnath Singh’s visit to Colombo and the three memorandums of understanding (MoUs) signed with Sri Lanka on Wednesday represent an important step in that effort.
According to a statement from the Ministry of Defence, Singh called on Sri Lankan President Anura Kumara Dissanayake and held substantive discussions on the multi-faceted partnership between the two nations, characterised by traditionally warm relations and mutual trust.
“Both leaders virtually inaugurated three Bailey Bridges constructed by the Indian defence forces,” the Ministry stated.
“The two sides also exchanged MoUs on upgradation of L70 Guns for the Sri Lankan Air Force, and cooperation between National Cadet Corps (NCC) and National Defence Colleges (NDC) of both the countries."
According to the Ministry, India will upgrade L70 Guns, earlier provided by India to the Sri Lankan Air Force, through an Indian government grant.
While the other agreements on military education and youth exchanges will deepen institutional and people-to-people links, the Indian-funded upgradation of six L70 guns for the Sri Lankan Air Force has a more direct security dimension, strengthening Colombo’s ability to protect critical assets while deepening India’s role in Sri Lanka’s defence architecture.
The L70 is a 40-mm air-defence gun originally developed by Sweden’s Bofors and used worldwide for short-range defence.
Although the basic weapon dates back several decades, modernised L70 systems can be integrated with contemporary fire-control systems, electro-optical sights and radars, substantially improving their effectiveness.
According to the Defence Ministry statement, the upgraded guns will strengthen the air-defence architecture protecting Sri Lanka's critical assets.
The fact that the guns were earlier supplied by India and are now being modernised with Indian assistance creates a longer-term equipment relationship between the two countries.
Defence relationships tend to become deeper when one country operates platforms supplied, upgraded or maintained by another. Equipment cooperation inevitably generates requirements for training, maintenance, technical support, spare parts and doctrinal interaction.
India has previously provided Sri Lanka with a Dornier aircraft for maritime surveillance and supported the establishment of a Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre (MRCC). During Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s April 2025 visit to Sri Lanka, the two countries also signed an MoU on defence cooperation.
Their joint statement envisaged greater cooperation in maritime surveillance, hydrography, joint exercises, defence exchanges, intelligence sharing and the provision of defence platforms and assets.
Wednesday’s agreements can therefore be seen as implementation of a security architecture that India and Sri Lanka have been constructing gradually over several years.
A militarily capable Sri Lanka that maintains close security cooperation with India contributes to the protection of New Delhi’s southern maritime approaches.
India and Sri Lanka face several common security threats, including narcotics trafficking, arms smuggling, terrorism, illegal fishing, piracy-related contingencies, maritime accidents and natural disasters. Maritime-domain awareness around Sri Lanka can provide India with valuable information about activity across the central Indian Ocean.
The two countries have consequently increased naval interaction.
Few neighbouring countries possess the strategic importance for India that Sri Lanka does.
The island lies just several dozen kilometres from India at their closest points and sits astride major shipping lanes connecting the Strait of Malacca and the western Indian Ocean. Shipping travelling between East Asia and Europe or West Asia passes south of Sri Lanka.
For India, maintaining a cooperative security relationship with Colombo helps ensure that this maritime space does not develop into a strategic vulnerability.
There is also the question of India’s major military, nuclear and space infrastructure in southern India. The proximity of Sri Lanka means that hostile intelligence-gathering activity operating from or around the island could potentially create security concerns for New Delhi.
This is why Indian sensitivities regarding visits by foreign surveillance and research vessels to Sri Lankan ports have historically been considerably greater than they would be regarding similar port calls elsewhere in the Indian Ocean.
China inevitably forms part of the strategic backdrop, although the India-Sri Lanka defence relationship cannot be reduced simply to competition with Beijing.
China remains an important economic partner for Colombo and has extensive interests on the island, including at Hambantota and Colombo Port City.
Hambantota has particular strategic resonance.
The Hambantota Port has been given on a 99-year lease to a Chinese state-linked enterprise after Colombo faced debt repayment problems. Chinese energy giant Sinopec has pursued plans for a major refinery there.
Meanwhile, India and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) are working with Sri Lanka on developing Trincomalee as an energy hub, illustrating how strategic infrastructure competition between India and China increasingly intersects with Sri Lanka’s economic development.
India has another significant advantage in Sri Lanka: proximity.
In its statement on Wednesday, the Defence Ministry highlighted that during Singh’s meeting with Dissanayake, the latter thanked India for assistance under Operation Sagar Bandhu following Cyclone Ditwah that hit the island nation in November-December last year.
According to the statement, Singh emphasised that “as a closest friend and neighbour of Sri Lanka, India considered it not a favour, but a responsibility to provide assistance as the first responder and would continue to do so in the future as well”.
The other two MoUs — involving the National Defence Colleges and National Cadet Corps of India and Sri Lanka — may appear less consequential than the L70 agreement, but they have considerable long-term strategic value.
Military relationships are built as much through professional networks as through equipment.
Officers who study together at defence colleges develop familiarity with each other’s doctrines, strategic thinking and military institutions. Over decades, these relationships can substantially improve trust between armed forces.
Similarly, the NCC youth exchange programme builds connections at an earlier stage, creating social and institutional familiarity between future generations.
Sugeeswara Senadhira, Secretary General of the Sri Lanka-based Asian Geopolitics, Sustainability & Peace Council think tank, said that defence cooperation between India and Sri Lanka is very important to keep the sea lanes passing through the Indian Ocean free and open.
“Singh’s visit is the first by an Indian defence minister to Sri Lanka in 38 years,” Senadhira, who also served as media advisor to four former presidents and one prime minister, pointed out while speaking to ETV Bharat over the phone from Colombo. “The last Indian defence minister to visit Sri Lanka was KC Pant. That was way back in 1989, two years after the signing of the India-Sri Lanka Peace Accord.”
He said that the MoU on upgradation of the L70 air-defence gun system must be part of the defence cooperation agreement signed by the two countries during Modi’s 2025 visit to Sri Lanka, most clauses of which have not been disclosed yet.
Senadhira said that the boost in India-Sri Lanka defence cooperation is important for the operations of the Colombo and Hambantota ports.
He also flagged the importance of the MoU on cooperation between the National Defence Colleges of India and Sri Lanka.
“Sri Lanka needs more training of soldiers and officers,” he said. “This is very important.”
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