Lanka president Dissanayake to visit India on Dec 15-17, hold talks with PM Modi

Sri Lanka’s new president, Anura Dissanayake, will visit India from December 15 to 17 for discussions on bilateral issues with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other government leaders.

Sri Lankan media minister and cabinet spokesman Nalinda Jayatissa made the announcement in Colombo on Tuesday.

This will be the first foreign trip by Dissanayake since he won the presidential elections in September. Later, in November, he led his National People’s Power (NPP) alliance to a landslide victory in parliamentary polls.

Also read: Why the world will keenly watch Anura Dissanayake's visit to India in December

Talks with Modi

Jayatissa said Dissanayake will engage in discussions with Modi and other high-ranking officials in New Delhi.

The president will be accompanied by confidant and foreign minister Vijitha Herath, who also holds the tourism portfolio, and deputy Minister of Finance Harshana Sooriyapperuma.

Jayatissa said further details of the presidential visit, including agreements to be signed between India and Sri Lanka, will be given out later by the foreign ministry.

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Foreign minister to come too

This will be Dissanayake’s second visit to New Delhi since February when he and Herath came to India as part of a delegation of their leftwing party, the Janatha Vimukti Peramuna (JVP).

The JVP is at the core of the centre-Left NPP which now rules Sri Lanka.