17 February 2015: India- Sri Lanka signs N Pact

• In a sign of a closer strategic partnership between Sri Lanka’s new government and India, President Maithripala Sirisena and Prime Minister Narendra Modi concluded a civil nuclear cooperation agreement on Monday, which is Sri Lanka’s first nuclear partnership with any country. Calling the bilateral agreement on civil nuclear cooperation “another demonstration of our mutual trust,” Mr. Modi said India and Sri Lanka had also agreed to expand defence and strategic cooperation, including a “trilateral format” with the Maldives. Mr. Modi is expected to visit Colombo in mid-March, and sources told The Hindu that he was likely to include Male in his itinerary. Officials on both sides said the agreement on nuclear cooperation was an initial one and would not lead to the construction of nuclear energy reactors immediately. According to an official release, the agreement “would facilitate cooperation in the transfer and exchange of knowledge and expertise, sharing of resources, capacity building and training of personnel in peaceful uses of nuclear energy, including use of radioisotopes, nuclear safety, radiation safety, nuclear security, radioactive waste management and nuclear and radiological disaster mitigation and environmental protection.”
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• Mr. Sirisena and Prime Minister Narendra Modi witnessed the signing of three agreements on agricultural cooperation, a memorandum of understanding on Nalanda University and an agreement on cultural cooperation. On the conflict between Tamil fishermen from India accused of trespassing into Sri Lankan waters, Mr. Modi said a solution must be found by the fishermen’s associations of both countries as it affected the livelihood of people in both countries. 
• Geological Survey of India (GSI)’s state-of-the-art research ship Samudra Ratnakar on Monday set sail to locate gas hydrates below the sea-bed off the east coast and off Kanyakumari and thereby joining India’s quest for energy security. Mangaluru-based Marine and Coastal Survey division, which controls the recently-acquired ship estimated to cost over Rs. 650 crore, took pride in launching the mission, as its Deputy Director-General and Head S. Kannan said that the GSI’s initiative to join hands with the Goa-based research body National Institute of Oceanography (NIO) had led to some concrete action. The scientists onboard exuded the confidence that the vessel is equipped with all the latest technology to successfully accomplish the task. They were sure that vast reserve of gas hydrates could be used as an industrial and domestic energy source. Scientists from GSI and NIO said that the gas hydrates, which resembled blocks of ice, contained methane that occur below the sea-bed with their low temperature and hidden high pressure. Once exposed to normal temperature and pressure, it would expand 140 times, and if even 10 per cent of the gas hydrates available in India’s oceans is exploited, they would meet the country’s energy requirement for a century. NIO scientist Pawan Dewagan said that Japan had successfully produced energy from gas hydrates for six days. Though the project could not continue further, there were high hopes that the challenges in producing energy from gas hydrates are tackled. Scientists said that China, Canada, Taiwan and the U.S. were also interested in gas hydrates.