▶️ Sri Lanka’s President Gotabaya Rajapaksa with India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi before a meeting at the Hyderabad House in New Delhi on Friday, November 29.
👉 India, anxious to counter China’s influence in the region, on Friday offered hundreds of millions of dollars in aid to Sri Lanka as the island nation’s new president made his maiden overseas trip to New Delhi.
Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s visit to India, just 12 days after he became president, is being intensely watched as New Delhi and Beijing compete for influence in the Indian Ocean and look to control its strategic sea routes.
Sri Lanka has been traditionally allied with India, but China has invested and loaned billions of dollars to the island nation during the decade-long reign of Rajapaksa’s elder brother Mahinda Rajapaksa.
After talks with the new leader, India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi said his country would give $400 million in credit to Sri Lanka to improve its economy and infrastructure. (AFP)
