Exterior affairs minister S Jaishankar will go to Colombo this week for what would be the first high-level engagement between India and Sri Lanka for the reason that new Lankan president, Anura Kumara Dissanayake, assumed workplace final week. The go to can be an vital for India to reaffirm its dedication to improvement assist for the strategically situated Indian Ocean neighbour amid considerations over a realignment in its overseas coverage beneath the Marxist president.
Jaishankar will name on the president throughout what will even be the primary go to by any overseas minister to Sri Lanka after the presidential election.India’s excessive commissioner to Sri Lanka Santosh Jha was the primary overseas diplomat to name on Dissanayake after the election consequence was introduced.
With Jaishankar go to, which is anticipated to begin on Oct 4, govt will even hope to construct on its outreach to Dissanayake in previous 12 months that noticed him visiting Delhi earlier this yr, setting apart reservations over his celebration JVP’s (Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna) deep and long-standing resentment in opposition to India. Throughout his go to, Dissanayake had met each Jaishankar and NSA Ajit Doval.
“Dissanayake might not have been India’s first alternative however go to by Jaishankar in solely the second week of his presidency suggests India would not count on him to be hostile within the method the brand new Maldives president was initially or the way in which the interim govt in Bangladesh has been,” stated a supply.
In his meet with Indian officers, Dissanayake had appreciative of India’s $ 4 billion-worth help that helped bail Sri Lanka out of a monetary disaster.
