Sri Lankan President discusses economic ties with India’s FS

The proposed Economic and Technological Cooperation Agreement (ETCA) between Sri Lanka and India was not on the agenda, foreign office sources said. Jaishankar is on a three-day visit to the country and he will meet senior officials and trade delegations. Earlier, External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Vikas Swarup had said the aim of Jaishankar’s visit to Colombo is to discuss economic cooperation and to pursue various initiatives discussed. 

“Foreign Secretary is going to Colombo to discuss economic cooperation with Sri Lanka and to pursue various initiatives and ideas discussed during the two high-level visits of President Maithripala Sirisena and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe,” he had said in New Delhi. After Sirisena’s ascent to power, there have been several high-level visits by Indian and Sri Lankan leaders to each other’s countries starting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s in March 2015, which marked the first visit to the island nation by an Indian leader since 1987.