According to a statement released by the High Commission of India in Colombo, PM Modi reiterated the shared deep-rooted millennia-old ties based on shared linguistic, religious and cultural traditions.
Colombo [Sri Lanka], February 3 (ANI): Prime Minister Narendra Modi congratulated his Sri Lankan counterpart Mahinda Rajapaksa on the occasion of the 73rd Anniversary of the Independence Day of Sri Lanka which will be celebrated on February 4.
Text Size:
A+
New Delhi: The Mahinda Rajapaksa government in Sri Lanka may have shelved the East Container Terminal (ECT) project at Colombo Port, but India believes Sri Lanka cannot backtrack after assuring New Delhi last year that it will kick-start the project once the parliamentary elections get over, ThePrint has learnt.
According to top official sources, New Delhi has discussed the matter with Japan as well since it is a joint collaboration. The tripartite agreement was signed by the former Maithripala Sirisena administration with India and Japan.
The project came under opposition pressure in Sri Lanka ahead of the parliamentary polls there last year in July. But Sri Lanka had assured India at the time that after the elections were over, New Delhi and Japan would get the go-ahead to develop the project, but it has to be “expedited” as it is crucial for all stakeholders.
New Delhi: India has flattened its COVID-19 graph and 146 districts have reported no new case of the viral disease in the last seven days, 18 in 14 days, six in 21 days and 21 districts in the last 28 days, Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan said on Thursday.
This has been achieved due to pro-active testing with more than 195 million COVID-19 tests conducted in the country so far, Vardhan, who chaired the 23rd meeting of the high-level Group of Ministers (GoM) on COVID-19 through a video-conference, said, according to a statement issued by the health ministry.
The current testing capacity is 1.2 million tests per day, the minister added.
January 25, 2021
Weeks after India’s External Affairs Minister visited Sri Lanka, President Gotabaya Rajapaksa gave the green light to the India-backed port project in Colombo. The project, earlier put on hold following protests by workers’ unions, is approved at a time when the island nation is seeking a $2-billion financial lifeline from New Delhi.
Reports suggest that the Rajapaksa government has been seeking a $1 billion currency swap and $1 billion debt moratorium from India to save it from sinking into a sea of foreign debt.
Sri Lanka’s economic situation has turned worse of late. As of September 2020, the country was facing $51.6 billion in foreign debt, according to the Central Bank of Sri Lanka. The foreign reserves dropped to $5.5 billion as of November 2020, down from the $7.6 billion in December 2019.