Sri Lanka’s Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe arrived in New Delhi this week, where he was scheduled to meet with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other senior officials.
Mr Wickremesinghe met with External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, and is also scheduled to meet with Road Transport and Highways & Shipping Minister Nitin Gadkari, and Minister of State for Petroleum and Natural Gas Dharmendra Pradhan.
His visit comes shortly after his government decided to pull out of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation, which was due to be held in Pakistan.
The move has been criticised by members of the Joint Opposition as a foreign policy “blunder”, designed to “please” India. Colombo MP Udaya Gammanpila warned that the decision “is a fatal mistake to take the side of India and boycott SAARC by hurting Pakistan”.
“Sri Lanka was aware of Pakistan’s decision to postpone the summit. Still they went ahead to announce that Sri Lanka was not taking part,” he added.
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