COLOMBO: Sri Lanka will host Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi next week, an official said on Monday (Mar 24), as Colombo grapples with the competing interests of its powerful northern neighbour and China, its largest lender.
A member of leftist President Anura Kumara Dissanayake’s office said Modi will be the first foreign head of government to visit the island nation under the new administration.
“It must be recalled that President Dissanayake’s first foreign visit after his election in September was to New Delhi in December,” the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told AFP.
He said Modi was due to hold bilateral talks on Apr 5 and travel to the northern Buddhist pilgrimage city of Anuradhapura before returning the following day.
Dissanayake travelled to Beijing in January for his second foreign visit as president, underscoring Sri Lanka’s delicate balancing act of maintaining ties with the two regional rivals.
New Delhi has been concerned about China’s growing influence in Sri Lanka, which it considers to be within its sphere of geopolitical influence.
China has emerged as Sri Lanka’s largest single bilateral creditor, accounting for more than half of its US$14 billion bilateral debt at the time the island defaulted on its sovereign debt in 2022.
Source: CNA
