New Delhi: Sri Lankan President Ranil Wickremesinghe will visit India next month and will meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 21 July, ThePrint has learnt.
This will be Wickremesinghe’s first visit to India as President after he replaced former leader Gotabaya Rajapaksa amid a major economic crisis in the country last year.
Sources in the Sri Lankan government and the President’s office told ThePrint that the Delhi visit would last two or three days.
The Sri Lankan President is also seeking individual meetings with External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and National Security Advisor Ajit Doval.
The official visit to India was finalised during a meeting held by Wickremesinghe’s cabinet Monday, sources said.
Cabinet Minister Jeevan Thondaman is among the few who will accompany the Sri Lankan President to India.
ThePrint reached out to India’s Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) spokesperson Arindam Bagchi to confirm details of the visit but he did not respond.
The two countries may sign a grid connectivity agreement ahead of the Sri Lankan President’s visit to New Delhi, according to a report by Sri Lankan newspaper Daily Mirror.
India will be the sixth country visited by Wickremesinghe since he was sworn into power last July. So far, Wickremesinghe has been to five countries – the UK, Philippines, Egypt, Singapore and Japan. He is scheduled to visit France later this month.
While attending Nikkei’s Future of Asia conference in Tokyo last month, the Sri Lankan President called for open dialogue between Japan, China, India, and the ASEAN nations.
China, India and Japan are among Sri Lanka’s top foreign lenders. India has played a major role since the island country plunged into crisis last year after its foreign exchange reserves dried up.
Recently, Indian foreign minister S. Jaishankar said that New Delhi has done more to help the island country than the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
“What we have done for Sri Lanka is bigger than what the IMF has done for Sri Lanka. If any of you have visited Sri Lanka recently, then you will note the popular perception that has accrued from this action,” said Jaishankar while speaking at an event in Anant National University, Gujarat last month.
Sri Lanka secured a $2.9 billion bailout from the IMF earlier this year and is currently in debt-structuring talks.
Also read: Modi, Prachanda announce 10-year power trade deal between India & Nepal, sign 7 agreements