Colombo: India and Sri Lanka are expected to come out with around 10 ambitious outcomes including enhancing cooperation in areas of defence, energy security and digitalisation following talks between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Anura Kumara Dissanayake on Saturday.
Modi landed in the Sri Lankan capital this evening to a rousing welcome as five top Sri Lankan ministers, including Foreign Minister Vijitha Herath, Health Minister Nalinda Jayatissa, and Fisheries Minister Ramalingam Chandrasekar received the prime minister at the Bandaranaike airport.
“Landed in Colombo. Grateful to the ministers and dignitaries who welcomed me at the airport. Looking forward to the programmes in Sri Lanka,” Modi said on ‘X’.
The prime minister, who arrived here after concluding a two-day trip to Thailand, was accorded a warm welcome by a group of Indian-origin people at the Taj Samudra, the hotel he is staying.
Modi, on a three-day visit to Sri Lanka, will be the first foreign leader to be hosted by Dissanayake in his capacity as the president. The prime minister last visited Sri
Lanka in 2019.
The prime minister and the Sri Lankan president will hold one-on-one and delegation-level talks on Saturday which are expected to produce at least 10 outcomes including a defence cooperation agreement and frameworks for deeper engagement in the energy sector.
If signed, the MoU on defence cooperation is set to signal a major upward trajectory in India-Sri Lanka defence leaving behind the bitter chapter relating to India pulling out the Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF) from the island nation around 35 years ago.
After the talks between Modi and Dissanayake, two documents facilitating India’s assistance to Sri Lanka on debt restructuring and another one on currency swap are likely to be made public.