Dissanayake highlights ‘good relations’ with India, points to New Delhi’s Katchatheevu stance

New Delhi has acknowledged that Katchatheevu belongs to Sri Lanka, President Anura Kumara Dissanayake said on Sunday (October 11, 2026), while referring to the island nation’s “good relations” with India.

Mr. Dissanayake was addressing a public rally in the island’s North Western Province, as part of a series of rallies organised by the ruling National People’s Power coalition to mark his completion of two years in office in September. Outlining his government’s efforts to achieve economic stability and good governance without fraud and corruption, and in maintaining strong ties with other countries while pursuing a neutral foreign policy, he pointed to the recent reference to Katchatheevu in the Indian Supreme Court. “We maintain good bilateral relations with India. The Central government of India has acknowledged before the Supreme Court that Katchatheevu Island belongs to Sri Lanka,” he said, while reiterating his earlier assurance to New Delhi that Sri Lanka “will never allow its airspace, land, or sea to be used in a manner that poses a threat to our neighbour, India”.

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Last week, India’s top court heard a batch of petitions challenging the “unconstitutional ceding” of Katchatheevu island to Sri Lanka in the 1970s. According to news reports, Attorney General R. Venkataramani told the court that India had “excellent relations” with Sri Lanka and did not intend reopening the Katchatheevu agreements of 1974 and 1976 with Sri Lanka. While the case is scheduled to be heard next in February 2027, Justice Sanjay Kumar, who along with Justice Sanjeev Sachdeva, is on the Bench, noted that New Delhi and Tamil Nadu must “sensitise” the fishermen to refrain from crossing into Sri Lankan waters.

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Politicians in India, both in Tamil Nadu and New Delhi, often invoke Katchatheevu, while taking up the issue of Tamil Nadu fishermen’s frequent arrests by the Sri Lankan Navy, on charges of illegal fishing in the island’s territorial waters. It is well known that Indian fishermen, hailing from Tamil Nadu’s coastal districts, go well past the International Maritime Boundary Line, and Katchatheevu island located close to it on the Sri Lankan side, to tap the marine resource-rich waters along Sri Lanka’s northern coast, that too using the destructive bottom-trawling fishing method. Earlier, Sri Lanka’s Fisheries Minister Ramalingam Chandrasekar too had welcomed the Attorney General’s remarks on Katchatheevu, and the Court’s observation on the need to sensitise Tamil Nadu’s fishermen.

Last year, President Dissanayake made a surprise visit to Katchatheevu and said: “The government is committed to safeguarding the surrounding seas, islands, and landmass of the country for the benefit of the people and will not allow any external force to exert influence in this regard.”