NEW DELHI: Sri Lanka is seeking closer relations on energy, trade and capacity-building with India, President Anura Kumara Dissanayake said on Monday as he met Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi.

Dissanayake is on his first overseas trip after assuming the top job in September. Last month he further consolidated his grip on power after his National People’s Power alliance won a majority in the legislature.

“I am so happy that I am able to come to Delhi on my first state visit,” Dissanayake said at a joint press conference. 

“This visit will pave the way for cooperation between the two countries to be further developed … We faced an unprecedented crisis two years ago and India supported us immensely to come out of that quagmire. It has also helped us in the debt-restructuring process.”

India extended more than $4 billion in aid to Sri Lanka when the island nation was hit by the worst economic crisis in its history in 2022 and its defaulted economy shrank by 7.8 percent.

Dissanayake said he sought Modi’s support on digitizing public services in Sri Lanka, and discussed cooperation in trade, energy, capacity-building, education, agriculture and social protection.

“With your visit, there is a new momentum and energy coming to our relationship. We have adopted a futuristic vision for our partnership,” Modi said.

The two leaders also discussed plans to supply liquefied natural gas to Sri Lanka’s power plants, connect the two countries’ power grids and lay a petroleum pipeline between them, a joint statement issued by the Indian External Affairs Ministry said.

Their meeting showed “willingness on both sides to continue and strengthen relations,” said Dr. Gulbin Sultana, an associate fellow at the South Asia Center at Delhi’s Manohar Parrikar Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses.

“When the new government under President Dissanayake came into power there were lots of apprehensions regarding how the bilateral relationship would take shape,” she said.

“I think the current president is taking a pragmatic approach and so, by choosing to visit India as an official visit as president, I think he has shown that he is committed to  follow the same path, the same trend which previous presidents of Sri Lanka had been doing.”

For Dissanayake, economic support was another focus of his trip to India.

“Of course, he would like economic support. He needs that (and) he is very hard-pressed for resources at this time and there is nothing much he can do because he does not have the money,” Jehan Perera, executive director at the National Peace Council of Sri Lanka, told Arab News.

“I think he wants to ensure that Sri Lanka’s best interests are met and his goal is that he wants Sri Lanka to come out of the problems it has (and) to develop.”