Lanka Prez to visit India in mid-Dec
Sri Lankan President Anura Dissanayake will be on his maiden visit to India in December after he was elected to power in September.
The visit is expected to happen in the middle of next month source said.
Last month, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar visited Colombo and extended the fiscal help programme to the new dispensation headed by Dissanayake.
India has offered to modernise the Kankesanthurai port through a grant to the tune of $61.5 million. India conveyed that payments for seven completed Line of Credit projects to the tune of $20 million could be converted into grant. India also decided to gift 22 diesel locomotives to the Sri Lankan Railways.
At a meeting with the Sri Lankan President, Jaishankar mentioned fuel and LNG supply, solar electrification of religious places, connectivity, digital public infrastructure, health and dairy development.
India also offered training and capacity building requirements of Sri Lanka.
New Delhi has, in the past, emerged as an ally of Colombo, playing a pivotal role in the debt-trapped island nation's steady economic recovery. When Sri Lanka defaulted on its foreign debt in 2022, India extended assistance of $3.8 billion through multiple credit lines. The amount outdid the International Monetary Fund 48-month bailout of $3 billion.
