Clarification comes after Sri Lankan Minister’s remarks on matter.
A day after Sri Lanka’s Minister of Energy remarked that the government would “re-acquire” World War-era oil tanks in the eastern city of Trincomalee — which were leased out to an Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) subsidiary in 2003 — India said the bilateral understanding on jointly developing and operating the tank farm stood.
“The two governments have consulted each other to explore mutually acceptable modalities for jointly developing and operating the facility in accordance with existing bilateral understandings, including the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) of 2017,” a statement from the Indian mission here said, denying reports in “sections of media” that the old deal was “scrapped”.
On Wednesday, Minister Udaya Gammanpila said his government was “proud to re-acquire” the oil tanks after being denied access since 2003, when Sri Lanka leased out 99 oil tanks to IOC for 35 years,…