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Raksha Mantri Rajnath Singh visited Colombo on 9 September 2026, calling on President Anura Kumara Dissanayake and Prime Minister Dr Harini Amarasuriya and addressing the Sri Lankan Ministry of Defence.
Two MoUs were exchanged: upgradation of six L-70 guns for the Sri Lankan Air Force under a Government of India grant, and cooperation between the National Cadet Corps and the National Defence Colleges of the two countries.
Three Bailey Bridges built by the Indian Defence Forces were virtually inaugurated by the two leaders.
President Dissanayake reiterated that Sri Lanka would never allow its territory to be used for activities inimical to India's security interests, and thanked India for relief under Operation Sagar Bandhu after Cyclone Ditwah.
Singh framed maritime cooperation around the MAHASAGAR vision and proposed a joint Maritime Domain Awareness system and a joint maritime HADR mechanism.
Regional security grouping that began in 2011 as an NSA-level trilateral on maritime security between India, Sri Lanka and the Maldives; its pillars are maritime security and safety, counter-terrorism and radicalisation, cyber security, trafficking and organised crime, and humanitarian assistance and disaster relief
Youth military training organisation meant to develop character, comradeship and leadership; runs the youth exchange programme under which foreign cadets attend NCC events in New Delhi each year
India's apex institution for the course in National Security and Strategic Studies for senior officers and civil servants; the MoU covers academic exchange with its Sri Lankan counterpart
Search-and-rescue and maritime information centre set up with a US$6 million Indian grant and built by Bharat Electronics Limited; Singh cited it as a model of the two countries' shared maritime commitment
India's maritime outreach doctrine, announced by the Prime Minister in Mauritius in March 2025 for the Global South. It builds on SAGAR - Security and Growth for All in the Region - announced from Mauritius in 2015, widening it from the Indian Ocean neighbourhood to trade, capacity building and mutual security across regions.
Simple Analogy: SAGAR watched one ocean; MAHASAGAR carries the same neighbourhood logic across oceans.
India's humanitarian assistance and disaster relief operation for Sri Lanka after Cyclone Ditwah, which made landfall on 27 November 2025
Key: Launched on 28 November 2025 with the NDRF, Indian Air Force and Indian Navy; relief included Bailey Bridge units, rations and NDRF rescue teams. President Dissanayake thanked India for it and for the follow-on rehabilitation package
Annual India-Sri Lanka joint army exercise held alternately in the two countries, focused on counter-insurgency operations in a sub-conventional setting under a Chapter VII United Nations mandate
Key: The 10th edition ran from 12 to 25 August 2024 at the Army Training School, Maduru Oya, Sri Lanka; the Indian contingent was led by a battalion of the Rajputana Rifles and the Sri Lankan side by the Gajaba Regiment
Modernisation of the 40 mm Bofors L/70 towed anti-aircraft gun, a Swedish-origin design of the late 1940s that succeeded the Bofors L/60
Key: In India the upgrade programme runs through Bharat Electronics Limited and the erstwhile Ordnance Factory Board, replacing hydraulic drives with electric actuators and adding electro-optical fire control; six such guns will now be upgraded for the Sri Lankan Air Force
Operation Sagar Bandhu and the first-responder framing both flow from it; Singh described India as a 'Vishwa Mitra' with a responsibility rather than a favour to extend
The bilateral exercise architecture - naval and army respectively - on which the new maritime cooperation proposals would build
Signed on 29 July 1987 by Rajiv Gandhi and J R Jayewardene; it enabled the Thirteenth Amendment to Sri Lanka's Constitution and brought in the IPKF, whose memorial Singh visited
Real-time information sharing between navies and coast guards on illegal fishing, suspicious vessels, narcotics and smuggling - the system Singh proposed the two countries build jointly
GS Paper 2 > International Relations > India and its Neighbourhood; Bilateral Groupings and Agreements
General Awareness > Defence Exercises and Agreements
General Awareness > Current Affairs and International Relations
Which of the following statements about 'Exercise Mitra Shakti-2023' are correct? 1. This was a joint military exercise between India and Bangladesh. 2. It commenced in Aundh (Pune). 3. Joint response during counter-terrorism... 4. Indian Air Force was a part of this exercise. Select the answer using the code given below:
Answer: 2, 3 and 4
Mutual and Holistic Advancement for Security and Growth Across Regions; announced in Mauritius in March 2025, ten years after SAGAR
NSA-level regional security grouping begun in 2011 as an India-Sri Lanka-Maldives trilateral; Secretariat at Colombo, now six members
A portable, prefabricated truss bridge that can be assembled quickly without heavy equipment; three built by the Indian Defence Forces were inaugurated in Sri Lanka
A real-time shared picture of activity at sea, used to track illegal fishing, suspicious vessels, trafficking and other maritime threats