A parliamentary panel on external affairs has recommended that the government negotiate with Sri Lanka at “all bilateral levels” to keep the duration of sentences for Indian fishermen found fishing in Sri Lankan waters to a minimum, and to avoid confiscation of fishing vessels, which will have an impact on their livelihood.
In its report, ‘India-Sri Lanka Relations and the Way Ahead’, the Committee on External Affairs headed by Congress leader Shashi Tharoor also said that Sri Lanka has “assured” India that its land will “not be used against New Delhi’s security interests”.
The panel also made a slew of recommendations to the Ministry of External Affairs – identifying other potential routes, such as Thoothukudi to Colombo, to improve ferry service between the two nations, and increasing the number of direct flights between them – emphasising that negotiating an agreement like the Economic and Technology Cooperation Agreement (ETCA) should be guided by the “principle of good neighbourliness and not based on a principle of strict reciprocity alone”.
The Committee also took note of an incident in which Iranian warship IRIS Dena was recently torpedoed off the coast near Sri Lanka.
“Despite India’s initially muted response, the Committee is glad to note that India was the primary and earliest responder in the subsequent incident, which resulted in IRIS Lavan and its affected sailors securing a safe haven in India. These actions were welcomed by observers and continue to be deeply appreciated by Iran,” it said.
The report was submitted to the Lok Sabha Speaker on September 25, as the one-year term of the Committee was ending in September, and Parliament was not in session.
India-Sri Lanka relations may be explained as a relationship of “civilisational contiguity, geographic proximity and contemporary strategic relevance”.
India is Sri Lanka’s closest neighbour, and the relationship between the two countries is more than 2,500 years old, it underlined.
The report said the principal challenge in bilateral ties remains the management of “sensitive issues”, such as fishermen, Tamil aspirations and external strategic footprints through sustained, high-level, institutionally anchored engagement.
According to the information provided by the ministry, the Committee noted that as of August 31, 2026, 39 Indian fishermen were in Sri Lankan custody, of whom 29 were awaiting trial.
The Committee has recommended the MEA to “negotiate with Sri Lanka at all bilateral levels to keep the duration of sentences for Indian fishermen found fishing in Sri Lankan waters at minimum and to avoid confiscation of fishing vessels which will have an impact on the livelihood of the fishermen, while at the same time continue to explore viable alternatives for the Indian fishermen”.
The Katchatheevu island issue also figures in the nearly 120-page parliamentary panel report.
“The government of India’s consistent position is that the maritime boundary with Sri Lanka was settled by the 1974 and 1976 agreements and that Katchatheevu lies on the Sri Lankan side of the India-Sri Lanka International Maritime Boundary Line. The 1976 agreement was accompanied by an exchange of letters (having the force of an agreement) on the issue of fishing rights.
Of letters, it was accepted that “fishing vessels and fishermen of India shall not engage in fishing in the historic waters, territorial seas and the exclusive economic zone of Sri Lanka”.
Currently, the matter relating to the Katchatheevu island is sub judice in the Supreme Court of India, it said.
The panel has also recommended the MEA to coordinate with the Ministry of Civil Aviation to “explore the possibility of increasing the number of direct flight connectivity” between the two countries, emphasising tier-II cities so as to promote tourism circuits, medical travel, pilgrimage travel, trade delegations and students’ mobility.
It also said that bilateral trade remains “structurally asymmetrical in India’s favour”, largely because Sri Lanka imports petroleum products, vehicles, machinery, textiles and other intermediate or final goods from India, while Sri Lanka’s export basket to India is narrower and concentrated in items such as ships/boats, agricultural products, spices, residues or waste from food industries and selected industrial goods.
To address the trade imbalance, efforts are underway to expand Sri Lankan export capacity, improve utilisation of the India-Sri Lanka Free Trade Agreement (ISFTA), address rules-of-origin and non-tariff issues, and conclude a modernised framework such as ETCA covering services, trade facilitation and investment.
“The existing ISFTA is goods-focused; the ETCA would add contemporary disciplines and thereby deepen India’s role as Sri Lanka’s primary economic partner while giving Sri Lankan services and firms greater access to opportunities and markets in India,” it said.
So far, 14 rounds of negotiations have been held on the ETCA. These also serve to provide an opportunity to take up implementation-related issues with respect to the India-Sri Lanka Free Trade Agreement and address concerns of Indian exporters.
It is understood that the current Sri Lankan government is undertaking a review of all its FTAs and is “yet to appoint a chief negotiator for the ETCA”, it said.
