Colombo: Sri Lankan Finance Minister Basil Rajapaksa is to travel to New Delhi and is scheduled to call on Prime Minister Narendra Modi during which. He is likely to seek more investments from India in Sri Lanka and also to draw more tourists, a media report said.
Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Professor G.L Peiris said that preparations for the meeting are currently being made by Sri Lanka and India, the Colombo Gazette reported. “The Indian High Commission in Colombo and the Sri Lankan High Commission in New Delhi are finalizing details of the visit,” Peiris said.
The Foreign Minister told reporters today that the meeting is scheduled to take place over the next few days. He said that the Finance Minister will also have talks with other senior Government Ministers and officials in India. “We have strong relations with India. It is not focused on just one area,” he said.
Peiris said that India has always offered assistance to Sri Lanka when the need arose. However, he said that the Finance Minister will not look to obtain more loans from India during the visit. Instead, he said the Finance Minister will seek more investments from India in Sri Lanka and also look to draw more tourists, he said.
The visit also comes days after Indian External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar spoke on phone with Basil Rajapaksa on November 10. Jaishankar had tweeted: “Good conversation with Finance Minister Basil Rajapaksha of Sri Lanka. Agreed to remain in close touch.”
The development also comes over a month after an inaugural flight from Colombo carrying a Sri Lankan delegation of over 100 people, including Buddhist monks and five ministers, and holy Buddha relics landed in Uttar Pradesh’s Kushinagar international airport, which was inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Indian Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla was on a four-day visit to Sri Lanka in early October, during which he oversaw the Indian projects there and also met with the Sri Lankan leadership.
