External affairs minister S Jaishankar will visit Sri Lanka during October 10-12 to attend the council of ministers’ meeting of the Indian Ocean Rim Association (IORA) and to hold bilateral meetings with the leadership in Colombo.
This will be Jaishankar’s second visit to Sri Lanka this year and it comes two months after Sri Lankan President Ranil Wickremesinghe travelled to India in July to bolster relations between the two sides.
Sri Lanka is the current chair of IORA and India will assume the role of vice-chair role of the regional grouping for 2023-25 during the IORA meeting to be held on October 11.
The council of ministers’ meeting will review IORA’s recent activities and outline future cooperation.
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India is set to take over the chairship of IORA during 2025-27, the external affairs ministry said.
Besides the IORA engagements, Jaishankar will have bilateral meetings in Colombo, the ministry added.
{{/usCountry}}Besides the IORA engagements, Jaishankar will have bilateral meetings in Colombo, the ministry added.
{{/usCountry}}IORA promotes sustained growth and balanced development within the Indian Ocean region and its 23 members include Australia, Bangladesh, Comoros, France, Indonesia, Iran, Kenya, Malaysia, the Maldives, Oman, Singapore, South Africa, Tanzania, Thailand, and the United Arab Emirates.
India and Sri Lanka unveiled a new economic partnership for maritime, air, energy and financial connectivity, including the use of India’s Unified Payments Interface (UPI) system, during Wickremesinghe’s visit.
The India-Sri Lanka Economic Partnership Vision also includes a power grid inter-connection for electricity trade, construction of a petroleum pipeline, a feasibility study for land connectivity, and resumption of talks on an Economic and Technology Cooperation Agreement to replace an existing trade deal.
Following an agreement between India’s NPCI International Payments Limited (NIPL) and Lanka Pay, UPI is set to be accepted in Sri Lanka by the end of the year after the completion of certain processes.