External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, who arrived in Sri Lanka on Friday to prepare the agenda for Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to the island-nation from next week, is expected to have a series of meetings with a cross-section of the country's leaders on Saturday.
She is expected to begin Saturday's schedule with a visit to the IPKF Memorial at around 10.30 a.m., following which she will meet with her Sri Lankan counterpart Mangla Samaraveera.
At 12.15 p.m., Swaraj is expected to call on Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, and thereafter, is likely to meet leaders of the TNA and SLMC between 2.45 p.m. and 3.40 p.m.
At 3.40 p.m. the Indian External Affairs Minister is expected to meet representatives of Indian origin Tamils for about 20-minutes, and thereafter, is expected to meet representatives of the Ceylon Workers Congress (CWC) and the Mahabodhi Society of Sri Lanka for another 20-minutes.
Swaraj is expected to call on the Speaker of the Sri Lankan Parliament at his residence around 5.10 p.m.
She will then depart for India from the Bandaranaike International Airport in Colombo at around 5.30 p.m.
Also Read
On Friday, Swaraj was received at the Bandaranaike International Airport in Colombo by Sri Lankan Deputy Foreign Minister Ajith Pathmakanpha Perera.
She thereafter called on the President of Sri Lanka Maithripala Sirisena and Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera.
Prime Minister Modi, who is expected to arrive in Sri Lanka on a two-day visit on March 13 and 14,m is expected to offer it and the island nations of Seychelles and Mauritius a broad range of military and civilian assistance in a bid to wrest back some of the influence that China has gained by spending billions of dollars in the region.
China has built seaports, power plants and highways across the small island nations. Its navy has also made forays into the Indian Ocean, including when submarines docked last year in Sri Lanka, rattling New Delhi, which has an uneasy relationship with Beijing.
Prime Minister Modi is expected to tighten defence and security cooperation and push for final approval for a 500 MW power plant to be built by India's state-run National Thermal Power Corporation under a 2012 agreement in Trincomalee, a strategic port in eastern Sri Lanka, Indian officials said.
The two sides were also in talks to upgrade military training, a Sri Lankan government official said.