14 December 2024 12:00 am Views - 49
President Anura Kumara Dissanayake who will undertake a state visit to India from December 15 to 17 will interact with business leaders there apart from his official engagements with Indian leaders – Prime Minister Narendra Modi, President Droupadi Murmu, External Affairs Minister Dr. S. Jaishankar and National Security Advisor Ajit Doval. The President will be accorded the highest protocol as it is a state visit. It is expected to deliver on both ceremonial optics and substance.
This visit will be a reaffirmation of Sri Lanka’s central place in India’s ‘Neighbourhood First Policy’ and vision of ‘SAGAR’ (Security and Growth for All in the Region).
The President will also visit Bodh Gaya. President Dissanayake, in his capacity of the NPP leader, visited India under the ICCR Distinguished Visitors Programme in February 2024. He had covered three cities then including New Delhi, Ahmadabad in Gujarat and Thiruvananthapuram in Kerala.
The President’s visit is expected to accelerate the positive momentum that the visit of Dr. Jaishankar had added to the wide-ranging bilateral partnership.
His visit saw the announcement of new grant projects worth nearly US $ 65 million, conversion of ongoing loans to grants worth US $ 21 million, discussions on ongoing initiatives, investments, capacity building, etc. India rolled over the pending payment of over US $ 1.7 billion under the Special Swap Arrangement under the ACU SAARC Mechanism.
India has doubled the grant support for up-gradation of nine schools in the plantation regions of Sri Lanka and handed over four sites of the US $ 17 million Indian-assisted project aimed at installing Solar PV rooftop systems in 5,000 religious sites across Sri Lanka.