NEW DELHI: External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar will be visiting Sri Lanka from October 10-12 to attend the Indian Ocean Rim Association (IORA) meeting and hold bilateral meetings with the leadership in Colombo.
This will be Jaishankar's second visit to the island nation this year. In July, Sri Lankan President Ranil Wickremesinghe had travelled to Delhi.
Sri Lanka is the current chair of IORA and India will assume the role of vice-chair of the regional grouping.
The council of ministers’ meeting will review IORA’s recent activities and outline future cooperation.
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.
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.
Meanwhile, 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.
