By Sugeeswara Senadhira/Ceylon Today –

Colombo, March 6- Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit Sri Lanka in the first half of next month to finalise and speed-up crucial joint projects in energy and ports sectors.

According to Foreign Ministry sources, it will be a two-day visit and the Indian Premier will have extensive discussions with President Anura Kumara Dissanayake, who made an official visit to New Delhi immediately after the elections in which his National People’s Power (NPP) scored a resounding victory  unseating the President and capturing a 2/3rd majority in Parliament.

Official sources confirmed that proposed Indian investments in the energy, ports and other sectors will figure in the discussions between Modi and Dissanayake. The projects include joint venture for the use of world war vintage oil tanks in Trincomalee, wind and solar power projects in the north and east, speedy completion of West Terminal of Colombo Port and joint ventures in railway modernisation and the important digital public infrastructure platform for which already the two leaders agreed during the New Delhi talks.

Colombo discussions will also cover flexed issue of illegal fishing by Indian fishermen in Palk Straight, issues pertaining to the cancellation of Adani wind power project in Mannar and delays in some other joint projects. Indian Prime Minister will also meet Prime Minister Harini Amaratunga and Foreign Minister Vijitha Herath. External affairs Minister Subramanyam Jaishankar will accompany the Prime Minister.

“We are in the process of working out a propitious timing for the visit,” Santosh Jha, the Indian High Commissioner, told reporters last month.

President Dissanayake had extended the invitation to PM Modi during his two-day visit to New Delhi in mid-December. He made India as his first destination after being elected President in September last year.

External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar was the first foreign dignitary to visit Colombo soon after Dissanayake took charge in September 2024.

Prime Minister Modi visited Sri Lanka twice between 2015 and 2017.

One of the concerns of India was the increasing Chinese presence in Sri Lanka. In addition to China funded Hambantota Port project and Colombo Port City caused some discord in the India-Sri Lanka relations. Chinese presence in individual nations – Nepal, Bangladesh, the Maldives and Sri Lanka – has also been a cause of constant concern for New Delhi.

President Dissanayake, when he met Prime Minister Modi in Delhi, gave an assurance that Sri Lanka will not permit its territory to be used in any manner inimical to India’s security and regional stability. Although it is a reiteration of Sri Lanka’s long-standing position, Indian analysts found it to be highly significant in view of a perception that Dissanayake’s radical Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) is a Left-leaning pro-China party. However, the JVP-led alliance, NPP is considered to be a moderate party which adheres to a neutral, nonaligned foreign policy.

During Dissanayake’s visit, the two nations signed a host of Memorandums of Understanding (MoUs), aimed at improving Sri Lanka’s economic and energy security, both of which suffered very badly during the multiple crises of 2022. Indian analysts believe that India should feel safe and secure as a nation, to follow up on them all, which was initiated as a part of New Delhi’s ever-expanding ‘Neighbourhood First’ and SAGAR policies.

Since ancient times, the India-Sri Lanka relationship has traditionally been marked by bonhomie and a legacy of cultural, religious and linguistic interaction. Trade and investment have grown and there is cooperation in the fields of development, education, culture and defense.

Dissanayake’s visit to Delhi had helped to put to rest doubts about how to deal with a completely new entity that has assumed power in Sri Lanka. Indian analysts hailed it as an example of how India can keep bilateral ties with a neighbouring country balanced even if there is a regime change in that country.

END