Sri Lankan President Ranil Wickremesinghe has been stressing the need for stronger economic cooperation and regional integration with Japan, including a special focus on deepening ties with New Delhi as his country strives to find its way out of bankruptcy.
Wickremesinghe's comments came as he virtually addressed the Head of State Session of the 3rd Voice of Global South Summit, held under the theme "An Empowered Global South for a Sustainable Future." From the north-central town of Anuradhapura yesterday, the conference chaired by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi brought heads of state from various countries together.
Noting the Indo-Sri Lankan relations, the President said, a "vision" statement shared between the two countries celebrated their past cooperation and laid the cornerstone for future collaboration.
He further cited an example while optimistic that this vision would emerge for more integration between the country of Sri Lanka and India in a multitude of sectors.
Wickremesinghe, the state president of Sri Lanka, stated that the main focus of strategy by Sri Lanka is to expand the economic partnership within and outside the region, mainly the evolving Bay of Bengal region, through BIMSTEC. The importance of BIMSTEC in the greater Bay of Bengal region, and beyond is going to be in the increase, and the integrated growth hub in this area is going to be an emerging phenomenon.
Sri Lanka, as a member of it, seeks greater economic integration with India and is currently engaged in the pursuance of economic cooperation agreements that would extend from Japan to India, his office said in a statement.
He further expressed appreciation to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Indian populace for being with them during the recent economic crisis in Sri Lanka. The President said that the help of India proved key to Sri Lanka's recovery through the difficulties of the last two years and put it out of bankruptcy.
"Sri Lanka expresses its gratitude to India for the third virtual seminar on Voices from the Global South. This series has given us the opportunity to communicate and share with one another, understand each other's points of view, and even enable us to come to a common position on many questions confronting the South," he said.
"We have reached a point where the West can no longer dominate global leadership and, furthermore, has become part of the problem. Ukraine and Gaza are case in points, which I am not going to elaborate upon, as these have already been done by most of the speakers before me. But, in this context, one has to take the efforts of India most seriously in the strengthening of the Global South.
Speaking about the economic crisis, Wickremesinghe mentioned that his country has reached agreements with the Official Creditor Countries, the Export-Import Bank of China, the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, and the Asian Development Bank to come out of bankruptcy.
"I can only say at this juncture that I appreciate the generosity of Prime Minister Modi and India, without which we would not have been able to survive these two bankrupt years of incurring a heavy liability on our people. The Vision Statement adopted by our two countries lays down the roadmap for these closer relations, underlining our 2,000-year history of connectivity. The result will be the emerging integration between our two countries in a wide range of areas."
He said that Sri Lanka will soon be finalising the Comprehensive Economic and Technological Agreement with India.
"We will also implement connectivity in the areas of power, transport, and land, besides working on projects relating to the Trincomalee Harbor, among others that we have finally concurred. All these initiatives will contribute to upgrading our knowledge and technology and set the stage for us to advance into a digital economy. I have to thank India for what it has done to facilitate this effort."
"I must thank India, which, since its independence, has worked to unite Afro-Asian countries and for the role it continues to play in forging closer unity among all of us," he added.
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