COLOMBO: Sri Lanka’s leader rolled out the red carpet on Saturday for Prime Minister Narendra Modi, as Colombo balances ties with neighbouring giant India and its biggest lender, China.
President Anura Kumara Dissanayake welcomed Modi – the first foreign dignitary to visit Colombo since the leftist leader swept elections last year – with a 19-gun salute.
Dissanayake and Modi are expected to sign agreements on energy, defence and health, but the visit’s highlight will be the launch of an Indian-backed 120 megawatt solar power project.
The solar plant on the island’s northeastern Trincomalee district had been stalled for years, but reinvigorated with New Delhi’s backing as a joint project.
Modi, who praised his “spectacular welcome” to Sri Lanka after arriving in Colombo late on Friday evening, was given an honour guard parade in the capital’s Independence Square.
His visit comes as Colombo grapples with the competing interests of New Delhi and Beijing.
New Delhi has been concerned about China’s growing influence in Sri Lanka, which it considers to be within its sphere of geopolitical influence.
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Dissanayake’s first foreign visit was to New Delhi in December, but he followed that with a visit to Beijing in January, underscoring Sri Lanka’s delicate balancing act.
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.
Colombo also signed an agreement announced in January with a Chinese state-owned company to invest $3.7 billion on an oil refinery in the island’s south.
It would be Sri Lanka’s largest single foreign investment and is seen as crucial for the island’s economy.
New Delhi has expressed concern over China’s growing influence in Sri Lanka.
Modi’s visit to Sri Lanka comes after a summit in Thailand and a string of meetings with leaders of regional nations as he sought to shore up India’s relations with neighbours.
On the sidelines of the Bangkok BIMSTEC meeting – the grouping of the seven nations on the Bay of Bengal – Modi held a rare face-to-face meeting with Myanmar’s junta chief Min Aung Hlaing.
Modi also held talks on Friday with the interim leader of neighbouring Bangladesh, Muhammad Yunus, the first such meeting since a revolution in Dhaka ousted New Delhi’s long-term ally Sheikh Hasina and soured relations.
India was the biggest benefactor of Hasina’s government and her overthrow sent cross-border relations into a tailspin, culminating in Yunus choosing to make his first state visit last month to China.
Modi also met on Friday in Bangkok with his Nepali counterpart KP Sharma Oli, the first since Kathmandu’s leader returned to power last year, as well as Tshering Tobgay of Bhutan.
