Jaishankar to arrive in Lanka on Monday to hold bilateral talks
External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar will arrive in Colombo on Monday to hold talks with Sri Lanka’s top leadership and attend the seven-nation BIMSTEC (Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation) summit.
This will be the minister’s first visit to Sri Lanka since India extended an economic relief package to bail the island nation out of its economic crisis.
Although Jaishankar’s visit is primarily for BIMSTEC engagements, officials said that he would be taking part in all important bilateral talks with Sri Lanka’s leaders.
Besides India and Sri Lanka, the BIMSTEC comprises Bangladesh, Myanmar, Thailand, Nepal and Bhutan.
The summit is being hosted by Sri Lanka in its capacity as the chair of the grouping.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will attend the virtual summit of the grouping on March 30, which is expected to focus on expanding economic engagement among its member countries.
The summit comes at a time when Sri Lanka is facing its worst foreign exchange crisis.
India, since mid-January, has provided economic relief in the form of currency swaps, deferred repayments and dedicated credit lines for the purchase of fuel and essential imports.
Jaishankar’s visit is taking place at a time when the public outrage over the Lankan government’s inefficiency in handling the crisis has come out in the open. People are holding protests and vigils urging immediate solutions to rid them of fuel and gas queues and enduring long hours of power cuts.
Finance Minister Basil Rajapaksa saw Jaishankar as a helpful ally in his bid to tackle the issue at a time serious public anger has turned against the government. These come in the form of peaceful demonstrations urging not only President Gotabaya Rajapaksa to stand down but the whole Rajapaksa ruling family to resign for incompetency.
Although both the government and the Opposition leaders as well as economic analysts have by and large appreciated India’s assistance, some concerns on India’s preconditions for such aid have been raised.
In recent days, the Opposition as well as a section of the government allies have raised concerns over some of the newly-approved Indian projects in the island nation. Also, there are growing concerns on some of the post-economic relief package engagements proposed with India.
