Three defence agreements, upgraded anti-aircraft guns, military training links and an Indian-backed AI laboratory move the relationship beyond ceremonial diplomacy
Indian Defence Minister Rajnath Singh has completed his Sri Lankan visit and the ceremonial photographs can now be put aside.
What remains is considerably more important.
Sri Lanka and India have signed three defence-related Memoranda of Understanding covering air-defence equipment and institutional cooperation between the armed forces and defence establishments of the two countries.
The first concerns Sri Lanka’s L70 40mm anti-aircraft guns.
India supplied 24 of these weapons to the Sri Lanka Air Force between 2000 and 2006 and has already undertaken maintenance work on 18. Under the latest arrangement, India will provide support for the remaining six, with the assistance being provided under an Indian grant.
The second agreement establishes cooperation between Sri Lanka’s National Defence College and India’s National Defence College in New Delhi.
The third establishes cooperation between the National Cadet Corps organisations of the two countries.
Taken separately, none amounts to a dramatic transformation of Sri Lanka’s defence posture.
Taken together with what else occurred during the visit, however, they demonstrate something more significant: military cooperation between Colombo and New Delhi is becoming increasingly institutionalised.
India has also announced plans to help establish an Artificial Intelligence laboratory for the Sri Lanka Army.
Such a facility potentially moves bilateral cooperation into areas including data analysis, surveillance, logistics and military decision-making – fields that are becoming increasingly important as armed forces around the world integrate artificial intelligence into their operations.
India also delivered equipment and components during the visit, including spares for the Sri Lanka Air Force’s Indra Mk-II radar, components for the Sri Lanka Navy’s SLNS Sayura and equipment associated with naval exercises.
Then there is the sea.
Singh placed considerable emphasis on maritime security, freedom of navigation and secure sea lanes in the Indian Ocean. India and Sri Lanka, he argued, are particularly positioned to work together in protecting regional peace and stability.
Geography makes that proposition unavoidable.
Sri Lanka sits beside some of the world’s most important maritime routes, immediately south of India and within an Indian Ocean increasingly contested by major powers.
New Delhi therefore views Sri Lanka not simply as another friendly neighbour but as part of India’s immediate strategic environment.
Colombo, meanwhile, must maintain a relationship with India close enough to recognise that reality without allowing legitimate defence cooperation to become strategic dependence.
That balance becomes particularly important because Sri Lanka simultaneously maintains important economic and diplomatic relationships with China, the United States and other powers.
There is nothing inherently alarming about India repairing Sri Lankan anti-aircraft guns, training military personnel or helping establish an AI facility.
Sri Lanka benefits enormously from defence training, technology and equipment it cannot always afford independently.
But transparency matters precisely because the relationship is important.
The public should know what each defence agreement contains, what obligations Sri Lanka has undertaken, whether any future commitments arise from them and what limits apply to Indian involvement in Sri Lankan defence infrastructure and military information.
That is not anti-Indian.
It is the ordinary scrutiny that should accompany defence arrangements with any foreign government.
Sri Lanka and India will remain neighbours long after today’s governments have disappeared. Their security interests will inevitably overlap and cooperation between their armed forces will almost certainly continue expanding.
The objective therefore should not be to resist cooperation.
It should be to make certain Sri Lanka enters it with its eyes open, its sovereignty intact and its Parliament and public properly informed.
Be that as it may, friendship between nations is strongest when neither side needs to wonder what was agreed behind the handshake.
