Sri Lankan President Dissanayake arrives in New Delhi amid focus on Adani's projects in island country

New Delhi: With the Adani Group’s projects in Sri Lanka under focus, President Anura Kumara Dissanayake of the neighbouring island nation arrived in New Delhi on Sunday for his first state visit to India after taking over the helm of the government in Colombo on September 23 this year.

Dissanayake was received by Union Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs L Murugan, a leader of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) from Tamil Nadu, after he landed at the Indira Gandhi International Airport in New Delhi.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will hold bilateral talks with him on Monday when New Delhi will once again nudge Colombo to fully and effectively implement the 13th amendment to the Constitution of Sri Lanka to ensure the devolution of power to the local governments in its Tamil-majority Northern and Eastern Provinces of the island nation.

The 13th amendment to the Sri Lankan constitution has its roots in the agreement that New Delhi had in July 1987 signed with Colombo to protect the interests of the minority Tamils of the Indian Ocean nation. Dissanayake’s party Janatha Vimukhti Peramuna (JVP), known for its leftist nationalist ideology, opposed the agreement between Sri Lanka and India and had burnt its copies in the past.

The JVP and some other organisations floated the coalition National People’s Power in 2019. Dissanayake led the NPP in the presidential elections in Sri Lanka this year.

Though New Delhi’s support to Sri Lanka during the financial crisis helped it win back the space it had lost to Beijing in the Indian Ocean nation, India was worried about the course of the bilateral relations after Dissanayake took over the helm in Colombo.

He, however, chose New Delhi as his first foreign destination after taking over as the president of Sri Lanka.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman also called on the Sri Lankan president in New Delhi on Sunday.

“Our conversations focused on strengthening Indo-Sri Lanka economic cooperation, enhancing investment opportunities, fostering regional security, and advancing key sectors such as tourism and energy. These engagements reaffirm the commitment to deepening the partnership between our two nations,” Dissanayake posted on X, after meeting Sitharaman, Jaishankar and Doval.

New Delhi will also nudge the Sri Lankan president to hold provincial elections at the earliest and devolve power to the elected councils.

The visit of the Sri Lankan president comes even as the projects of India’s Adani Group in the island nation came under focus after the group’s chairman Gautam Adani was recently indicted in a US federal court for allegedly conspiring to commit securities and wire fraud.

Adani Ports and SEZ Ltd recently said that the Colombo West International Tribunal was on track for commissioning by early next year. It added that the company would fund the ongoing project through "internal accruals", instead of waiting for the US International Development Finance Corporation, which had in November 2023 agreed to provide a $553 million loan to the Adani Group for the project.

"It is a very important project for revenue generation for the port, we are keen to see it going ahead," Sri Lankan port minister Vimal Rathnayaka said earlier this week. The Adani Group’s decision to reject funding from the US was its own and Sri Lanka had no issues with it, added the minister.

Dissanayake’s party JVP however opposed the Adani Group’s wind power project at Mannar in Sri Lanka.

Modi-Dissanayake meeting on Monday may see New Delhi committing financial support to Colombo for the wind power project in Sampur in Sri Lanka.

Dissanayake will also meet President Draupadi Murmu during his stay in New Delhi.

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and National Security Advisor Ajit Doval called on the Sri Lankan president after he arrived in New Delhi on Sunday.

“The primary goal of the visit is to strengthen the Indo-Lanka relationship and enhance bilateral ties between the two nations,” the office of the Sri Lankan president stated in Colombo. “Sri Lanka is India’s closest maritime neighbour in the Indian Ocean Region (IOR) and holds a central place in the prime minister’s vision of ‘SAGAR’ (Security and Growth for All in the Region) and India’s ‘Neighbourhood First’ policy,” stated the spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs in New Delhi. New Delhi hopes that the visit of the new Sri Lankan president to India will strengthen the multi-faceted and mutually beneficial cooperation between the two countries.