Sri Lankan President Anura Kumara Dissanayake on Monday pledged to strengthen ties with India during his first foreign visit as head of state, with a red carpet welcome by Prime Minister Narendra Modi .
The island nation's leaders typically make their first visit to regional power India, which vies with China for influence in the Indian Ocean.
Left-wing Dissanayake, who came to power in September thanks to his commitment to fighting corruption, said ties between nations had an “important place” in their foreign policy, adding that Modi “assured us of his full support “.
Modi said he was “happy” that India was Dissanayake's first foreign visit, saying after their meeting it would “add new energy and speed” to relations.
New Delhi is concerned about Beijing's growing influence in Sri Lanka and warmly welcomed Dissanayake with a military honor guard parade at the presidential palace.
New Delhi is a key trading partner for Colombo – Indian exports totaled $4.1 billion to Sri Lanka, compared with $1.4 billion the reverse – and encourages infrastructure projects.
But China is Sri Lanka's largest bilateral lender.
Dissanayake is expected to travel to Beijing for talks with Chinese leaders in early 2025.
– “Supported us enormously” –
Sri Lanka suffered its worst financial crisis in 2022 when it ran out of foreign exchange to pay for essential imports such as food, fuel and medicine, and defaulted on its $46 billion foreign debt.
“We faced an unprecedented economic crisis two years ago and India supported us immensely to get out of this quagmire,” Dissanayake added.
Dissanayake said he had “productive discussions” with India's finance and foreign ministers, as well as national security adviser Ajit Doval.
“Our conversations focused on strengthening Indo-Sri Lankan economic cooperation, enhancing investment opportunities, promoting regional security and developing key sectors such as tourism and energy,” Dissanayake said in a press release.
“These commitments reaffirm the commitment to deepening the partnership between our two nations.”
Sri Lanka straddles the world's busiest shipping route, which connects the Middle East and East Asia, giving its maritime assets strategic importance.
Days before Dissanayake's visit, Sri Lanka said Indian conglomerate Adani Group's port project in Colombo would go ahead despite US accusations against its founder and sudden changes in its financing.
An explosive November indictment in New York accused billionaire tycoon Gautam Adani and several colleagues of deliberately misleading international investors as part of a bribery scheme.
The accusations, categorically denied, sent Adani shares tumbling and raised new questions about the corporate governance of the family business, whose founder is considered a close ally of Modi.
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