{"id":3379,"date":"2025-04-05T13:55:30","date_gmt":"2025-04-05T08:55:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pakjazbo.com\/?p=3379"},"modified":"2025-04-05T13:55:31","modified_gmt":"2025-04-05T08:55:31","slug":"indias-modi-in-sri-lanka-for-defence-and-energy-deals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pakjazbo.com\/?p=3379","title":{"rendered":"India\u2019s Modi in Sri Lanka for defence and energy deals"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Sri Lanka\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

President Anura Kumara Dissanayake welcomed Modi \u2014 the first foreign dignitary to visit Colombo since the leftist leader swept<\/a> elections last year \u2014 with a 19-gun salute.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Dissanayake and Modi are expected to sign agreements on energy, defence and health, but the visit\u2019s highlight will be the launch of an Indian-backed 120 megawatt solar power project.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The solar plant on the island\u2019s northeastern Trincomalee district had been stalled for years, but reinvigorated with New Delhi\u2019s backing as a joint project.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Modi, who praised his \u201cspectacular welcome\u201d to Sri Lanka after arriving in Colombo late on Friday evening, was given an honour guard parade in the capital\u2019s Independence Square.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

His visit comes as Colombo grapples with the competing interests of New Delhi and Beijing. New Delhi has been concerned about China\u2019s growing influence in Sri Lanka, which it considers to be within its sphere of geopolitical influence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/a>Regional allies<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Dissanayake\u2019s first foreign visit was to New Delhi<\/a> in December, but he followed that with a visit to Beijing in January, underscoring Sri Lanka\u2019s delicate balancing act.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

China has emerged as Sri Lanka\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u2019s worst-ever economic meltdown.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u2019s south. It would be Sri Lanka\u2019s largest single foreign investment and is seen as crucial for the island\u2019s economy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

New Delhi has expressed concern over China\u2019s growing influence in Sri Lanka. Modi\u2019s 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\u2019s relations with neighbours.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the sidelines of the Bangkok BIMSTEC meeting \u2014 the grouping of the seven nations on the Bay of Bengal \u2014 Modi held a rare face-to-face meeting with Myanmar\u2019s junta chief Min Aung Hlaing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u2019s long-term ally Sheikh Hasina and soured relations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

India was the biggest benefactor of Hasina\u2019s government and her overthrow sent cross-border relations into a tailspin, culminating in Yunus choosing to make his first state visit<\/a> last month to China.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Modi also met on Friday in Bangkok with his Nepali counterpart KP Sharma Oli, the first since Kathmandu\u2019s leader returned to power last year, as well as Tshering Tobgay of Bhutan.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sri Lanka\u2019s 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 \u2014 the first foreign dignitary to visit Colombo since the leftist leader swept elections last year \u2014 with a 19-gun salute. Dissanayake and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3380,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","inline_featured_image":false,"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_3859443944190656_798604363342440":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3379","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakjazbo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3379","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakjazbo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakjazbo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakjazbo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakjazbo.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3379"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/pakjazbo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3379\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3381,"href":"https:\/\/pakjazbo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3379\/revisions\/3381"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakjazbo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3380"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakjazbo.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3379"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakjazbo.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3379"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakjazbo.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3379"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}