Tuesday, the Sri Lankan high commissioner, Milinda Moragoda, met with the minister of external affairs, S. Jaishankar, to discuss bilateral relations in light of the island nation’s attempts to obtain a bailout from the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The discussion took place less than a fortnight after Jaishankar visited Sri Lanka. This trip was intended to reestablish the bilateral relationship after tensions arose as a result of a Chinese surveillance vessel calling at Hambantota port last year.In a tweet, Jaishankar claimed that he and Moragoda had a productive discussion during which they discussed Jaishankar’s recent trip to Sri Lanka and moving the understandings ahead.
According to a statement from the Sri Lankan high commission, Moragoda met with the minister of external affairs to discuss the path forward and follow-up action deriving from Jaishankar’s recent trip to Colombo and to examine the situation of relations between Sri Lanka and India at the moment.Niluka Kadurugamuwa, the deputy high commissioner for Sri Lanka, and Puneet Agrawal, the joint secretary (Indian Ocean Region) of the external affairs ministry, also took part in the meeting.On January 20, Jaishankar returned to India after his trip to Sri Lanka. He had meetings with the foreign minister, Ali Sabry, the president, Ranil Wickremesinghe, and the prime minister, Dinesh Gunawardena, while he was there.The visit took place immediately after India, the first of Sri Lanka’s creditors, sent financial guarantees to the IMF in support of the country’s debt restructuring scheme. The island nation in financial turmoil has three major creditors: China, India, and Japan.Last year, India gave Sri Lanka nearly $4 billion in financial assistance to help the country deal with its greatest economic crisis.
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S praised the bilateral talks with Sri Lanka’s high commissioner as fruitful.
By tirupatinews
