Indian ambassador meets Sri Lankan minister to discuss water supply infrastructure

Indian High Commissioner Gopal Baglay met with Sri Lanka's water supply minister Vasudeva Nanayakkara on October 12 to discuss ways to further enhance the mutually-beneficial cooperation between the two sides including the development of water supply infrastructure. The Indian embassy in Sri Lanka on Twitter said that access to clean water remains a top priority for both India and Sri Lanka.

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The embassy further informed that the greater Dambulla Water Supply project in Sri Lanka has been built with credit from India, while two others are currently under construction. Last year, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi had announced a $450 million line of credit to Sri Lanka when the country's newly elected President Gotabaya Rajapaksa was on an official visit to New Delhi. 

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India-Sri Lanka relations

Even though with deep historical and cultural ties, relations between Colombo and New Delhi have been marred several times, including during the Indian intervention in Sri Lanka's civil war, alleged interference by India in elections, over fishing rights in the Indian ocean, among other things. In the recent past, Sri Lanka has moved closer to China, signing several naval agreements and leasing Hambantota Port to the Communist State, which became a major point of concern for India because of the strategic advantage it gave to Beijing in the Indian ocean.

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The relations between India and Sri Lanka have again started to gain strength after the recent election of Gotabya Rajapaksa, who assured New Delhi of pursuing a neutral foreign policy along with 'India first policy'. When Mahinda Rajapaksa swept the parliamentary elections in Sri Lanka, PM Modi was among the first foreign leaders to congratulate him. Last month, PM Modi held a virtual bilateral summit with his Sri Lankan counterpart, where he hailed the 1,000-year-old ties between both the countries. 

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