New Delhi, December 15 (IANS). Sri Lankan President Anura Kumara Dissanayake reached New Delhi on Sunday on a three-day official visit to India. This is his first foreign visit after assuming office in September.
On reaching New Delhi, Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting, Dr. L. Murugan warmly welcomed the Sri Lankan President.
External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said in a post on Twitter that this is an opportunity to further deepen India-Sri Lanka relations and give impetus to the people-centric partnership.
During the visit, Dissanayake will meet President Draupadi Murmu and discuss bilateral issues of mutual interest with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
President Dissanayake will also participate in a business event in Delhi to promote investment and commercial relations between India and Sri Lanka. Apart from this, he will also visit Bodhgaya in Bihar.
Sri Lanka is India’s nearest maritime neighbor in the Indian Ocean Region (IOR) and occupies a central place in the Prime Minister’s vision of ‘SAGAR’ (security and development for all in the region) and India’s ‘Neighbourhood First’ policy.
The visit of President Dissanayake to India is expected to further strengthen multidimensional and mutually beneficial cooperation between the two countries.
During a visit to Colombo earlier this year, soon after the National People’s Power (NPP) party came to power, Foreign Minister S. Jaishankar had invited the Sri Lankan President to visit India.
During his one-day visit to Colombo on October 4, Jaishankar met President Anura Kumara Dissanayake and conveyed India’s strong commitment to advance bilateral cooperation based on its ‘Neighbourhood First’ policy and ‘SAGAR’ approach. .
In his meeting with President Dissanayake, the External Affairs Minister talked about the ongoing initiatives in the fields of energy generation and transmission, fuel and LNG supply, solar electrification of religious places, connectivity, digital public infrastructure, health and dairy development.
–IANS
AKJ/
