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Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is in Sri Lanka to expand defense and energy links, as Colombo balances relationships with his strong neighbor and the largest lender, China.
Sri Lanka President Anura Kumara Disanayake threw red carpet fashion and welcomed him on Saturday with a 19 weapon greeting in the capital’s independence square.
The Indian leader is the first foreign lover to visit the island as the left Disanayake wiped out the elections last year.
Modi was also awarded Mithra Vibhushan, in the highest civilian honor of Sri Lanka, with Disanayak.
The Indian leader thanked the President of Sri Lanka and said the honor was “not only mine, but it belongs to the Indian 140 kroons (1.4 billion).”
“We believe that our security interests are coordinated,” Modi said during a television ceremony from the Disanayake office in Kolombo. “Our security is interdependent and interconnected.”
Both nations signed a five -year defense cooperation agreement on the training of the Sri Lanka military staff in India, as well as the exchange of information and technology.
Disanayake applauded what he called “Growth of India as the power of the world, not just regional power.”
“I have repeated our position for the Prime Minister’s fashion that someone will not use Sri Lanka’s territory to undermine India’s security,” he added.
Previously, India has opposed Chinese submarines and research vessels called the main sea port in Colombo. Sri Lanka has not allowed Chinese submarines to stop since 2014 after India expressed concerns about two such visits.
Last year, Kolombo imposed a ban on foreign research vessels following the accusations of News that Chinese ships were used to spy on India.
Kolombo report Al Jazeera Minelle Fernandez said Disanayake is also likely to discuss fishermen’s issues from India in southern India, Tamil Nad, who may interfere with the territorial waters of Sri Lanka.
“Hundreds of Indian trawl carries fish using a mechanized system called Bottom Trawling, which also destroys the environment,” she said.
India, UAE to develop the energy center
But the visit was focused on the Agreement between India and the United Arab Emirates on the development of the Energy Center in Sri Lanka, the Indian Foreign Ministry said.
The center of the strategically important Trincomalee area, a natural port in eastern Sri Lanka, will include the construction of multiple products of the pipeline, which may include the use of World War II tank farms, partly organized by Sri Lanka’s subsidiary Indian Oil Corp, Indian Foreign Secretary Vikrams Misri told reporters Colombo.
“The UAE is India’s strategic partner in the energy space and was therefore the perfect partner for this exercise, which is done for the first time in the region,” said Misri. “The exact outline of the UAE role will be developed as soon as business discussions begin.”
He said the three countries would next choose business units that would consider the funding and possibility of the center.
Modi and Disanayake also discovered 120 megawat Sampur Solar power plant Trincomalee. The machine had stopped for years, but was restored with Newlin as a joint project.
India and Sri Lanka also concluded their debt restructuring process, Misri said.
Sri Lanka owes about $ 1.36 billion loans to Indian Exim Bank and Indian State Bank, according to Sri Lanka’s Ministry of Finance.
India and Sri Lanka also signed pacts on the Power Grid connection, digitization, safety and healthcare.
Balancing act
The Modi Visit was when Kolombo meets competing News and Beijing interests.
India is concerned about China’s growing influence in Sri Lanka, which it considers to be a sphere of geopolitical influence.
Dysanayake The first foreign president’s visit to the president was New in December, but he followed when he visited Beijing in January, emphasizing the delicate act of balancing Sri Lanka.
China has become Sri Lanka’s largest bilateral creditor, accounting for more than half of the $ 14 billion at a bilateral debt during the frost failed to fulfill its sovereign debt in 2022.
Beijing was the first to restructure her loans to Sri Lanka, which allowed the island to emerge from the worst economic collapse of this year.
Kolombo also signed an agreement with a Chinese state -owned company that will invest $ 3.7 billion in an oil processing plant in the south of the island. It would be Sri Lanka’s biggest only foreign investment, and it is considered to be the island’s economy.
Modi arrived at Sri Lanka at the end of Friday from the summit in Thailand and a number of meetings with regional leaders when he tried to establish India’s relationship with his neighbors.
Bangkok bimstec At the edge of the meeting, grouping of seven peoples in Bengal Bay-Modi held a rare face-to-face meeting with the head of the Myanmar Military Government.
Modi also had talks with Muhammad Yunus, a neighboring head of Bangladesh, a neighboring head of Bangladesh, such a meeting since the revolution in Daka removed the long-term ally of Seikh Hasin.
India was the largest Hasin government charity, and her overthrow sent a cross -border relationship to the tail capacity, which culminated in Yunus, choosing her first country visit to China last month.
Modi also met in Bangkok on Friday with his unclear colleague KP Sharma Ol, the first since Kathmandu’s leader returned to power last year, as well as Butan Thering Tobgay.
