India and Sri Lanka vowed to bolster ties during a visit to New Delhi by Sri Lankan President Anura Kumara Dissanayake, whose left-leaning coalition won a landslide majority in parliamentary elections last month.
After the two leaders held talks on Monday, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that he had assured Dissanayake that New Delhi will be a reliable partner for Sri Lanka’s development. He outlined several areas in which they plan to boost cooperation such as establishing a petroleum pipeline between the two countries and connecting their power grids.
“We are honored that Dissanayake picked India for his first official visit,” Modi said at a joint press conference. "This will give new speed and energy in our relations.”
Dissanayake's party’s roots in Marxist ideology had raised some concerns in New Delhi that he would lean towards China.
But by making New Delhi his first overseas stop, he signaled that “India will indeed be our closest ally” according to Paikiasothy Saravanamuttu, executive director of the Center for Policy Alternatives in Colombo. “That is the symbolic dimension of this visit.”
Both rivals India and China have vied for influence in the island country that sits strategically along shipping routes in the Indian Ocean. Before Sri Lanka’s economy collapsed in 2022, Beijing poured in billions of dollars to build infrastructure projects that included a port which India feared could affect its security.
However, New Delhi and Colombo reset ties as India helped the country tide over its economic woes by extending aid worth $ 4 billion as the cash-strapped country struggled to buy food, fuel and medicines.
"We faced an unprecedented economic crisis two years ago and India supported us immensely to come out of that quagmire," Dissanayake said. Addressing New Delhi’s security concerns, he said “we will not let our land be used in any way that is detrimental to the interest of India.”
Analysts say Dissanayake will build ties with India as he tries to revive the economy. “The cooperation with India will certainly flourish and I want to reassure our continued support for India,” the Sri Lankan president said.
“Sri Lanka has to balance between India and China but Dissanayake is very much a pragmatist and not an idealogue. He knows that at the end of the day he cannot do anything to get on the wrong side of India, because India as its closest neighbor, is going to be there always,” according to Saravanamuttu. “China will also be in Sri Lanka but on the question whether China will get a larger stake, I don’t think that will necessarily be the case."
In New Delhi, the Sri Lankan leader also met other top Indian diplomats — foreign minister Jaishankar Subramanian, and National Security Adviser Ajit Doval.
"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," Dissanayake said in a statement.
Ahead of the president’s visit, Colombo said it will go ahead with a port project being developed by Indian conglomerate Adani Group in Colombo.
The government had earlier said it would review the project after the United States filed an indictment against the group’s founder and top officials charging them with duping investors by concealing that a huge solar energy project in India was being facilitated by an alleged $250 million bribery scheme.
