PM Modi arrives in Sri Lanka, to sign slew of agreements

Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrived in Sri Lanka on Friday night (April 4) on a three-day state visit to the island nation which will see him open a solar power plant and possibly sign a historic defence agreement with Colombo.

Modi flew into the Bandaranaike International Airport from Bangkok, Thailand where he attended the BIMSTEC Summit. He was accompanied by National Security Adviser (NSA) Ajit Doval and External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar.

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Modi and the Indian delegation, which included the foreign secretary, later checked into the Taj Samudra Hotel facing the Colombo promenade.

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This is Modi’s fourth visit to Sri Lanka since he became the prime minister in 2014.

Hundreds of security personnel were deployed along the route from the airport which is located outside Colombo right up to the luxury hotel which faces the sea.

Modi’s formal visit will begin at 9 am on Saturday when he will be given a ceremonial welcome at the Independence Square in the heart of Colombo.

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He is the first foreign leader to visit Sri Lanka since Anura Dissanayake, a Marxist, stormed to power last year in presidential elections and then led his Centre-Left NPP alliance to victory in parliamentary polls.

The ceremonial welcome will be followed by restricted talks involving President Dissanayake and Prime Minister Modi for about half an hour at the presidential secretariat.

This will be followed by talks between the two delegations as well as exchange of agreements on a variety of bilateral issues.

Solar power plant inauguration

Modi will virtually open on Sunday a 50 MW solar power plant at Sampur in the eastern district of Trincomalee.

Solar panels installed at scores of religious places across the country will also be inaugurated by Modi besides a cold storage plant at Dambulla, away from Colombo and the country’s biggest vegetable hub.

The Indian foreign secretary had said earlier that India and Sri Lanka could sign a defence agreement, on which work was speeded up soon after Dissanayake visited New Delhi in December last year.

Details about the defence pact are not known. There is also no specific mention of this in the official tour programme of Modi.

On Saturday evening, Modi will lay a wreath at a memorial in Colombo for the nearly 1,200 Indian soldiers who died fighting the Tamil Tigers in Sri Lanka’s north and east in 1987-90 after being deployed in the island under a bilateral pact.

At night, President Dissanayake will throw a banquet for Modi.

On Sunday morning, Dissanayake and Modi will fly to Anuradhapura, a sacred Buddhist site some 100 km north of Colombo, and visit the revered Mahabodhi temple.

Modi, the second Indian prime minister to visit Anuradhapura after Jawaharlal Nehru, will unveil a plaque at the town’s railway platform and flag off a train.

From Anuradhapura, Modi will depart for Tamil Nadu to inaugurate a railway bridge.

Sri Lanka and Tamil Nadu are separated by a narrow strip of sea.