Sri Lankan PM lauds PM Modi’s leadership at NDTV World Summit 2025

New Delhi, Oct 17 In a heartfelt return to the city where she studied three decades ago, Sri Lankan Prime Minister Harini Amarasuriya delivered an evocative keynote at the NDTV World Summit 2025, praising Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s “Neighbourhood First” policy as a cornerstone of South Asian solidarity.

Speaking at the Bharat Mandapam under the summit’s theme, “Edge of the Unknown: Risk, Resolve, Renewal,” her address, “Steering Change in Uncertain Times,” blended gratitude for India’s pivotal support during Sri Lanka’s 2022 economic crisis with a vision for regional rejuvenation.

Amarasuriya’s words, imbued with personal nostalgia and diplomatic weight, underscored the deep ties binding Colombo and New Delhi. Marking her first official visit to India since assuming office in September 2024, Amarasuriya met PM Modi earlier that day at his residence.

Their discussions, spanning education, women’s empowerment, innovation, development cooperation, and fishermen’s welfare, reflected the shared maritime and cultural heritage of the two nations.

“Our discussions covered a broad range of areas, including education, women’s empowerment, innovation, development cooperation and welfare of our fishermen. As close neighbours, our cooperation holds immense potential,” PM Modi posted on X, capturing the warmth of their exchange.

This set an affable tone for Amarasuriya’s summit appearance, where, as Sri Lanka’s third female premier after Sirimavo Bandaranaike and Chandrika Kumaratunga, she emerged as a voice of scholarly insight and quiet resolve.

Amarasuriya’s address centred on India’s transformative role during Sri Lanka’s 2022 economic collapse, a crisis marked by a 7.8 per cent GDP contraction, 69.8 per cent inflation, and the nation’s first sovereign default since 1948.

Triggered by ill-judged tax cuts, a flawed organic farming policy, the 2019 Easter bombings, Covid-19’s fallout, and Ukraine war-induced commodity shocks, Sri Lanka faced a humanitarian precipice.

The United Nations flagged a “full-blown emergency,” seeking $47 million in aid. India’s response, under PM Modi’s leadership, was swift and unprecedented; over $4 billion in aid, including a $500 million currency swap, deferred Asian Clearing Union payments, and credit lines for fuel, fertiliser, rice, and medicines. “India redefined leadership during our darkest hour,” Amarasuriya declared.

“I express my deepest appreciation to Prime Minister Modi and the Indian people for standing shoulder-to-shoulder with us, ensuring essentials reached our shores when reserves were perilously low.

Your support was a reaffirmation of fraternity, stabilising our currency and averting deeper hardship.” This solidarity, she argued, embodies the summit’s motif of risk as a precursor to revival.

“Risk is the first step towards renewal,” she said, citing Sri Lanka’s recovery. Her National People’s Power (NPP) coalition, bolstered by a 2024 electoral landslide where she secured 655,289 votes, has driven a remarkable turnaround. Inflation has dropped to single digits, GDP grew by 5 per cent in 2024, and reserves reached $4.5 billion by mid-year.

Debt restructuring saw $3 billion forgiven and $25 billion re-profiled over two decades, with a $3 billion IMF facility enforcing fiscal rigour, targeting a tax-to-GDP ratio of 15 per cent by 2025.

Tourism surged 66 per cent, and remittances rose 11 per cent, easing public debt from 128 per cent to a projected 102.4 per cent of GDP by year-end. Amarasuriya, born in Galle in 1970 to a planter father and a homemaker mother, reflected on her journey from Sri Lanka’s tea estates to political leadership.

A distant relative of post-independence minister HW Amarasuriya, she studied at Bishop’s College, Colombo, and spent an exchange year in the US. In 1991, with Sri Lankan universities shuttered by civil strife, she arrived at Delhi’s Hindu College on an Indian scholarship, earning a Sociology degree in 1994.

Later, she secured a Master’s in Applied Anthropology from Macquarie University and a PhD from Edinburgh, focusing on child protection.

Revisiting Hindu College the previous day, she was honoured with a guard of honour and toured Classroom 27, where the “Harini Amarasuriya Social & Ethnographic Research Lab” was inaugurated.

“Standing here in Delhi feels like coming a full circle,” she said. “In 1991, I navigated flux as a student. Returning now, I see India’s vibrant transformation – a nation of 1.4 billion, pulsating with diversity and innovation.”

Digitisation, she noted, is key to Sri Lanka’s renewal. “We have restructured our debt and are digitising public structures,” she said, referencing e-Government Procurement systems and digital IDs to streamline services.

Asked whether anthropologists or politicians better understand society, she replied, “The purpose of understanding is to transform it. As a politician, I can effect that change.” This fusion of academia and activism, honed at the Open University of Sri Lanka and her 2019 political entry, defines her leadership.

Light-hearted moments revealed her Indian affinity: “I love ‘chole bhature’ and Abhimaan was my first Hindi film. I speak ‘thoda thoda’ Hindi – enough to hum Lata Mangeshkar.”

Her warmth bridged the Palk Strait, delighting the audience. Amarasuriya’s address, amid luminaries like Rishi Sunak and Tony Abbott, reaffirmed South Asia’s pivot to renewal.

Her talks with External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar, focusing on economic synergy and digital transformation, signal deeper ties. With India as Sri Lanka’s top trade partner and tourism source, and Colombo’s apparel investments in India, the partnership thrives.

As the summit progressed, Amarasuriya’s call for compassionate coalitions, anchored by PM Modi’s leadership, resonated; in risk lies opportunity, and in resolve, a renewed future.

--IANS

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