Sri Lanka is in talks with India to discuss a proposal to acquire two military aircraft for the Sri Lankan airforce, following a meeting last week between foreign minister G L Peiris and the Indian minister for external affairs, S Jaishankar.
The proposal is centred around acquiring two Dornier aircraft. The Dornier is a twin-engine multi-purpose aircraft used for maritime surveillance by the Indian Navy and Coast guard. The aircraft is considered the showpiece of the governments' "Make in India" programme and is manufactured by Hindustan Aeronautics under licence from the Swiss company RUAG. It is unclear how the aircraft will be used by the Sri Lankan military.
Peiris commenting on the meeting said,
“There is a proposal for the purchase of two Dornier aircraft. There is no finality, nothing has been agreed upon. There are proposals and counter-proposals, and it is one of the matters under discussion,”.
Peiris' visit comes just weeks after India provided Colombo with a $500 million revolving credit line from Exim Bank of India, a $1 billion credit line for food and medicines, a $515 million settlement deferment with the Asian Clearing Union, and a $400 million currency swap facility. Despite these lines of credit, the country continues to face acute shortages of fuel, medicine and food. Earlier this week Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC), Sri Lanka’s state-run petroleum company, had run out of cash to purchase oil, relying on India to deliver 40,000 tonnes of fuel. The fuel crisis has led to regular power cuts across the island.
Since the coronavirus outbreak, Sri Lanka's economy has been in dire straits as revenue from the tourism sector and exports have dwindled, causing the Sri Lankan rupee to depreciate. As a result, prices of imported food items and locally produced food items have increased, reaching record levels in January 2022.
