Foreign Secy arrives in Colombo ahead of Sri Lankan Prez's India visit

Foreign Secretary Vinay Mohan Kwatra has arrived here on a two-day official visit to Sri Lanka to take stock of several Indian projects and make arrangements for Sri Lankan President Ranil Wickremesinghe's upcoming trip to India.

Kwatra landed at Bandaranaike International Airport here on Monday night. Officials said Kwatra would assess several Indian projects in multiple sectors which are in the pipeline and prepare the ground for Wickremesinghe's visit to India.

Wickremesinghe will embark on a two-day visit to India on July 21 during which he is expected to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi, officials here said on Sunday.

They said Wickremesinghe will finalise the implementation of several Indian projects related to power and energy, agriculture, and maritime issues in the island nation ahead of his departure for New Delhi.

 

This will be Wickremesinghe's first visit to India after being appointed President of the cash-strapped country last year following the ouster of Gotabaya Rajapaksa in a people's uprising in July.

Wickremesinghe has laid emphasis on good relations with India and made it a major plank of his foreign policy.

Wickremesinghe's visit to India has been on hold for several months after a formal invitation was delivered to him by External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar in January this year.

The visit comes as Sri Lanka's weak economy shows signs of improvement.

Sri Lanka was hit by an unprecedented financial crisis in 2022, the worst since its independence from Britain in 1948, due to a severe paucity of foreign exchange reserves. India offered Sri Lanka an economic lifeline with dedicated credit lines for fuel and essential items.

The island nation, which declared its first-ever credit default in mid-April last year, secured a bailout of USD 2.9 billion from the IMF in March this year, spanning over 4 years subject to reforms being put in place.