New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will play host to his Sri Lankan counterpart, Ranil Wickremesinghe, this week, the third leader from India’s South Asian neighbourhood to be visiting the Indian capital in the space of a fortnight.
Wickremesinghe arrives on Tuesday on a four-day working visit and will meet Modi for talks on Wednesday, according to a schedule from the Indian foreign ministry. Prior to this, Modi had welcomed Bangladeshi prime minister Sheikh Hasina from 7-10 April and the president of Nepal, Bidya Devi Bhandari, from 17-21 April in New Delhi.
Wickremesinghe’s own visit comes ahead of a visit by Modi to Sri Lanka to participate in the celebrations marking the UN ‘Vesak Day’, considered the most important festival in the Buddhist calendar. The commemorations in Colombo will include an International Buddhist Conference in which over 400 delegates from more than 100 countries will participate.
Modi is expected to go to Colombo on 12 May and after attending the Vesak Day celebrations—which commemorates Lord Buddha’s birth, enlightenment and passing away—travel to Dickoya in Nuwara Eliya district in Sri Lanka’s Central Province where he is expected to inaugurate a hospital for the welfare of Tamils of Indian origin.
This will be Modi’s second visit to Sri Lanka, having first visited the country in earlier in May 2015.
Wickremesinghe’s talks with Modi in New Delhi—aimed at further expanding ties in a range of areas—is expected to cover a Sri Lankan proposal to develop the Trincomalee oil storage tank farm, besides discussing the Economic and Technology Cooperation Agreement (ETCA) that the Sri Lankan government is keen to sign with India and explore a solution to the problem of Indian and Sri Lankan fishermen straying into each other’s territorial waters.