India’s Prime Minister Modi talks to Sri Lanka President

ECONOMYNEXT – India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi said he had a telephone conversation with Sri Lanka President Gotabaya Rajapaksa.

“We discussed issues relevant to our bilateral and multilateral cooperation, including in the context of COVID-19,” he said in a twitter.com message.

India had expressed concern after Sri Lanka refused to give a container terminal concession in Colombo Port as earlier promised and instead offered a different one.

Had a telephone conversation with President @GotabayaR. We discussed issues relevant to our bilateral and multilateral cooperation, including in the context of COVID-19.

— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) March 13, 2021

China already has a terminal in Colombo.

The Reserve Bank of India also did not extend a 400 million dollar swap line given to the central bank after February 2021 from a facility usually given to South Asian nations.

Sri Lanka had earlier requested another billion US dollar swap from India.

China had since given Sri Lanka a 1.5 billion US dollar equivalent swap like to the central bank. (Colombo/Mar15/2021 – Corrected)