New Delhi: On his maiden foreign trip after assuming office, Sri Lanka's new President Maithripala Sirisena will today met Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi.
Srisena is on a four-day visit to India seeking a new beginning in bilateral ties that took a hit during the rule of his predecessor.
According to a report published in Times of India, India and Sri Lanka are likely to sign a civil nuclear cooperation agreement. India has reportedly decided to go ahead with civil nuclear cooperation with Sri Lanka following its own "breakthrough understanding" over the same during US President Barack Obama's recent visit.
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The Lankan president is believed to be desirous of making a new beginning in the Indo-Lanka relations after bilateral ties suffered under Rajapaksa over India's backing to US-moved resolutions at the UN rights body over alleged warcrimes. The Rajapaksa regime's pro-China tilt had also soured the relationship.
The two countries in the past have held negotiations for a civil nuclear agreement but this lost steam last year under Sirisena's predecessor Mahinda Rajapaksa.
After Rajapaksa lost the presidential elections, both India and the US are keen to wean away Sri Lanka from the influence of China.
India is expected to seek clarity from Sri Lanka over the status of the China-funded $1.4 billion Colombo port city project which has security implications for New Delhi.
Prime Minister Ranil Wickramasinghe had said before the elections that the opposition coalition led by Sirisena would cancel the project if it came to power. While the new government did form a committee under Wickramasinghe to review the project because of environmental issues, the cabinet spokesperson was recently quoted as having said that the project had been cleared to avoid "misunderstanding'' with China. Wickramasinghe though has continued to maintain that the project is under review.
While campaigning for the election, Sirisena had criticized the Chinese projects as debt traps, but he has since announced plans to visit China after his India trip.
Sirisena will be looking to boost bilateral trade with India, now standing at around $1bn.
