The article is about recent talks between the Sri Lankan and Indian governments. In these meetings, they discussed trade levels. In 2000 both countries had agreed to free trade with one another and since then have traded extensively back and forth. However, the main point of this discussion is the start of talking about a technological agreement. This agreement was discussed from 2016-2018 but has been put on hold until now. In these discussions, the most recent of which occurred October 30- November 1 they discussed many economic and technological advantages that could be considered if they started working more closely. And while I mentioned earlier that trade between the two countries has always been fairly good, this new deal would expand their trade and benefit both economically. I think this is very interesting. India is a rising power whereas Sri Lanka is smaller and less powerful. This leads me to wonder what India is getting out of trading beyond just a country to export goods to. I guess we could consider where they are geographically but I am still interested in why now. Because countries don’t generally make win-win deals unless they think they are on the winning end of the deal. I am also interested because the article did not go into it much. What caused the countries to stop talking from 2018 to 2023? And further, why now for these trading deals? Regardless, I think India and Sri Lanka getting closer could cause interesting dynamics between India and other countries that are similar in size. I think this is a good example of liberalism theory. Both of these countries are democracies so one of the reasons they may be choosing to work together is just for each other’s good; “like you scratch my back I’ll scratch yours.” This is because liberalism
