An official announced on Monday ( Mar 24 ) that Sri Lanka will host Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi next week as Colombo battles the competing interests of its strong northern neighbor and China, its largest lender.
Modi will be the first international head of government to travel to the island nation under the new management, according to a member of the leftist president Anura Kumara Dissanayake’s business.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told AFP that” It must be remembered that President Dissanayake’s first overseas visit after his poll in September was to New Delhi in December.
He claimed that Modi would attend a intergovernmental meeting on April 5 and would then go to Anuradhapura, a northern Buddhist pilgrimage site, before making his return.
Dissanayake’s next foreign browse as president in January highlighted Sri Lanka’s delicate balancing act of maintaining relationships with the two local competitors.
New Delhi has expressed concern about Sri Lanka’s growing effect, which it views as being in line with its political circle.
Sri Lanka’s largest single diplomatic bank is China, which accounts for more than half of its US$ 14 billion in debt when the area defaulted on its sovereign debts in 2022.