COLOMBO: Sri Lanka will host Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi next week, an official said Monday, 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 April 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 $14 billion bilateral debt at the time the island defaulted on its sovereign debt in 2022.
Beijing was also the first to restructure its loans to Sri Lanka, a move that cleared the way for the island to emerge from that year’s worst-ever economic meltdown.
During Dissanayake’s visit to Beijing, the two countries agreed to continue maritime cooperation and signed several agreements on agriculture, tourism and media collaboration.
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Unable to repay a massive Chinese loan in 2017, Sri Lanka handed over its southern port of Hambantota to a Beijing-based company on a 99-year lease for $1.12 billion.
New Delhi has objected to Chinese research vessels entering Sri Lanka’s ports, accusing them of spying on Indian military installations, an allegation rejected by Beijing.
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