Sri Lanka President arrives on a three-day visit to India, to meet PM Modi today

Sri Lanka's newly elected President Gotabaya Rajapaksa welcomed by Union Minister VK Singh in New Delhi (Image: Twitter @GotabayaR)


Newly-elected Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa is on a three-day visit to India as he arrived on Thursday, in his first foreign visit after taking reins of power in the island nation.

On Friday, he will hold extensive talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on strengthening bilateral ties between the two countries.

Brother of Sri Lankan Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa, Gotabaya was welcomed by Union Minister Road Transport and highways Gen (retd) VK Singh on Thursday.

Last week, India said it was looking forward to work closely with the new Sri Lankan government and hoped that it would be able to fulfil the aspirations of the Tamil community in that country.

As Rajpaksas come to power winning the votes of majority group in the country, Delhi would assess Gotabaya’s stance on Tamil minority group in Sri Lanka. Having a history of accusations of human rights violation against the Tamil minority group in the island nation India has expressed its concern on multiple occasions.

Given the Rajpaksas pro-Chinese policies, it would be interesting how India deals with Sri Lanka’s foreign policies under Gotabaya.