Foreign Secretary Kwatra meets Sri Lankan foreign minister; discusses Wickremesinghe's India visit

Colombo [Sri Lanka], July 11 : Foreign Secretary Vinay Kwatra held a meeting with Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Ali Sabry in the island nation on Tuesday and discussed Colombo's President Ranil Wickremesinghe's upcoming visit to India.

"Good meeting with Indian Foreign Secretary Vinay Kwatra at @MFA_SriLanka today. We discussed the upcoming State visit of President @RW_UNP to #India at the invitation of the HE @narendramodi. Our discussion also centered around strengthening the bilateral relationship between our two countries for the mutual benefit of our people," Ali Sabry tweeted.

Earlier, Kwatra met his Sri Lankan counterpart Aruni Wijewardane. "Foreign Secretary @AWijewardane met her Indian counterpart @AmbVMKwatra this morning (11/7) at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The Indian Foreign Secretary is currently on a visit to #SriLanka," the Foreign Ministry of Sri Lanka said in a tweet.

Kwatra arrived here on Monday night on a two-day official visit to take stock of several Indian projects and prepare the ground for Sri Lankan President Wickremesinghe's trip to India next week.

Wickremesinghe will embark on a two-day visit to India on July 21 during which he is expected to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi, officials here said on Sunday.

This will be Wickremesinghe's first visit to India after being appointed President of the cash-strapped country last year following the ouster of Gotabaya Rajapaksa in a people's uprising in July.

The visit comes as Sri Lanka's weak economy shows signs of improvement.

Sri Lanka was hit by an unprecedented financial crisis in 2022, the worst since its independence from Britain in 1948, due to a severe paucity of foreign exchange reserves. India offered Sri Lanka an economic lifeline with dedicated credit lines for fuel and essential items.