India-Sri Lanka Economic Ties: FM Sitharaman's Visit

Colombo, Nov 3 (PTI) Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Friday met Sri Lanka President Ranil Wickremesinghe and Prime Minister Dinesh Gunawardena and discussed India-Sri Lanka joint initiatives in the economic and commercial sphere.

The president of Sri Lanka acknowledged the multi-faceted support to Sri Lanka provided by India during the economic crisis.

Sitharaman is on a three-day visit to Sri Lanka.

"They discussed India-Sri Lanka joint initiatives in the economic and commercial sphere. FM Smt. @nsitharaman highlighted that the 'Vision document on Economic Partnership' adopted during his visit to India in July 2023 will further strengthen the countries' maritime, air, digital, energy and people-to-people connectivity," the finance ministry said on a post on X.

The finance minister also expressed satisfaction on the progress made in recent negotiations on the Economic and Technology Cooperation Agreement and UPI-based digital payments and shared her views on Investment Based Support and Bilateral Investment Treaty BIT, it said.

They also had discussions on cooperation in inter-grid connectivity, aviation, power projects, oil exploration in Mannar, it said.

Sitharaman assured that India would continue to collaborate with the Sri Lankan government on matters pertaining to debt restructuring.

During the meeting with the prime minister, Sitharaman discussed various issues on India-Sri Lanka Economic Partnership and exchanged views to promote greater trade and investment, enhance tourism and promote people-to-people ties.

The two leaders also talked about greater collaboration in promotion of digital education in addition to digital payments and digital identity and cooperation in dairy development.