National Security Advisor Ajit Doval On Friday (August 30), Doval met Sri Lankan President Ranil Wickremesinghe and other leaders in Colombo and held wide-ranging political consultations ahead of the presidential election on September 21. Doval, who was in the city to follow up on the ongoing Colombo Security Caucus (CSC) initiative, met Wickremesinghe, Prime Minister Dinesh Gunwardena, senior opposition leader Sajith Premadasa and JVP Marxist leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake. All except Gunawardena are front-runners for the presidency.
Ajit Doval’s commitments in Sri Lanka
During the meeting with Wickremesinghe at the Presidential Secretariat, they discussed the ongoing economic collaboration between Sri Lanka and India, according to the Presidential Media Division (PMD). The President’s Principal Adviser on National Security, Sagala Ratnayake, also attended the meeting.
During his meeting with Prime Minister Gunawardena on Thursday evening at the Prime Minister’s Office, Doval said there is immense potential for India and Sri Lanka to further strengthen economic cooperation “which would be mutually beneficial considering the complementarities in bilateral ties.”
“Doval expressed India’s desire to further enhance cooperation with Sri Lanka and sought the Prime Minister’s views on priority areas,” news portal Adaderana.lk reported.
The Prime Minister identified the energy sector as a key area for collaboration and thanked India for supporting alternative energy projects both large and small scale.
Doval also suggested that Sri Lanka could generate more power than its domestic needs and sell the excess to India, reaping substantial financial benefits, as Bhutan did.
“We had an important conversation and discussed the security of India and Sri Lanka. He said India would work closely with any elected government in Sri Lanka,” said Mano Ganesan, leader of a political party of Tamils of Indian origin.
Doval also met with National People’s Power (NPP) leader and presidential candidate Dissanayake earlier in the day and Sajith Premadasa, the SJB presidential candidate and main opposition leader on Thursday evening, Adaderana.lk said.
“I met Doval in Colombo. We discussed political relations between our two countries and the current political situation ahead of the presidential elections,” Dissanayake said in a message.
The main purpose of Doval’s visit was the signing of the Founding Documents of the Colombo Security Caucus (CSC).
(With PTI inputs)
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