External affairs minister S Jaishankar will visit Colombo this week for what will be the first high-level engagement between India and Sri Lanka since the new Lankan president, Anura Kumara Dissanayake, assumed office last week. The visit will be an important for India to reaffirm its commitment to development support for the strategically located Indian Ocean neighbour amid concerns over a realignment in its foreign policy under the Marxist president.
Jaishankar will call on the president during what will also be the first visit by any foreign minister to Sri Lanka after the presidential election.India’s high commissioner to Sri Lanka Santosh Jha was the first foreign diplomat to call on Dissanayake after the election outcome was announced.
With Jaishankar visit, which is expected to commence on Oct 4, govt will also hope to build on its outreach to Dissanayake in past 12 months that saw him visiting Delhi earlier this year, setting aside reservations over his party JVP’s (Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna) deep and long-standing resentment against India. During his visit, Dissanayake had met both Jaishankar and NSA Ajit Doval.
“Dissanayake may not have been India’s first choice but visit by Jaishankar in only the second week of his presidency suggests India doesn’t expect him to be hostile in the manner the new Maldives president was initially or the way the interim govt in Bangladesh has been,” said a source.
In his meet with Indian officials, Dissanayake had appreciative of India’s $ 4 billion-worth assistance that helped bail Sri Lanka out of a financial crisis.