Sri Lankan PM, Modi discuss ties

New Delhi: Visiting Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe met Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday in New Delhi at a meeting in which the “entire gamut of bilateral relations was discussed”.

But New Delhi was tight-lipped on the specific issues that were discussed, even as the Sri Lankan Prime Minister has also cancelled a scheduled press conference that were scheduled to be held on Friday morning in New Delhi shortly before his departure. It may be recalled that a Reuters report in October had quoted a Sri Lankan minister as confirming that India is in advanced talks with Sri Lanka to operate an airport on the southern tip of the island, where China has invested heavily as part of its Belt and Road initiative. Speculation is rife that this issue may have also been discussed in Thursday’s meeting between the two Prime Ministers. Economic infrastructure projects with Indian participation in Sri Lanka and the fishermen’s issue was expected to be discussed on Thursday. This comes at a time when China has been trying to expand its influence in the island nation, even as Sri Lanka is attempting to strike a balance in its ties with the two Asian giants.

According to the Reuters report in October, Sri Lanka’s civil aviation minister Nimal Siripala had said the country had been looking for alternative investors in the Hambantota area, where China has built a seaport and is in discussions to build an investment zone and a refinery. “It was during this time India came up with a proposal,” Mr Siripala was quoted as saying in the report last month. Hambantota sits near one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes and is an important part of the Belt and Road initiative, aimed at building trade and transport links across Asia and beyond to Europe.